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How to Run a Country
- An Ancient Guide for Modern Leaders
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 1 hr and 17 mins
- Categories: History, Ancient History
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All of us are faced countless times with the challenge of persuading others, whether we're trying to win a trivial argument with a friend or convince our coworkers about an important decision. Instead of relying on untrained instinct - and often failing as a result - we'd win more arguments if we learned the timeless art of verbal persuasion, or rhetoric.
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How to Win an Election is an ancient Roman guide for campaigning that is as up-to-date as tomorrow's headlines. In 64 BC when idealist Marcus Cicero, Rome's greatest orator, ran for consul (the highest office in the Republic), his practical brother Quintus decided he needed some no-nonsense advice on running a successful campaign.
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One of the most influential Roman perspectives on religion came from a nonreligious belief system that is finding new adherents even today: Stoicism. How did the Stoics think about religion? In How to Think About God, Philip Freeman presents vivid new translations of Cicero's On the Nature of the Gods and The Dream of Scipio. In these brief works, Cicero offers a Stoic view of belief, divinity, and human immortality, giving eloquent expression to the religious ideas of one of the most popular schools of Roman and Greek philosophy.
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Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
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Excellent narration
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A very good translation of the handbook
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How to Win an Argument
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Worried that old age will inevitably mean losing your libido, your health, and possibly your marbles too? Well, Cicero has some good news for you. In How to Grow Old, the great Roman orator and statesman eloquently describes how you can make the second half of life the best part of all - and why you might discover that reading and gardening are actually far more pleasurable than sex ever was.
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Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
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London in the eighteenth century had risen from the ashes. The city and its people had been brought to the brink by the Great Fire of 1666. But the century that followed was a period of vigorous expansion, of scientific and artistic genius, of blossoming reason, civility, elegance and manners. It was also an age of extremes: of starving poverty and exquisite fashion, of joy and despair, of sentiment and cruelty.
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Not much substance.
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Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote on a wide range of subjects, from Greek philosophy to moral duty to friendship. Though he considered philosophy secondary to politics and often used his writings for explicit political ends, his work has nevertheless been widely read for over two thousand years and has influenced everything from the culture of the Renaissance to the ideals of the founding fathers of the United States.
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Beyond Good and Evil
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Continuing where Thus Spoke Zarathustra left off, Nietzsche's controversial work Beyond Good and Evil is one of the most influential philosophical texts of the 19th century and one of the most controversial works of ideology ever written. Attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, Nietzsche criticises past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. Nietzsche tried to formulate what he called "the philosophy of the future".
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Not for the uninitiated!
- By G. Mahoney on 22-01-18
Summary
Marcus Cicero, Rome's greatest statesman and orator, was elected to the Roman Republic's highest office at a time when his beloved country was threatened by power-hungry politicians, dire economic troubles, foreign turmoil, and political parties that refused to work together. Sound familiar? Cicero's letters, speeches, and other writings are filled with timeless wisdom and practical insight about how to solve these and other problems of leadership and politics. How to Run a Country collects the best of these writings to provide an entertaining, common-sense guide for modern leaders and citizens. This brief book, a sequel to How to Win an Election, gathers Cicero's most perceptive thoughts on topics such as leadership, corruption, the balance of power, taxes, war, immigration, and the importance of compromise. These writings have influenced great leaders - including America's Founding Fathers - for 2,000 years, and they are just as instructive today as when they were first written.
Organized by topic and featuring lively new translations, the book also includes an introduction, headnotes, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an appendix containing the original Latin texts. The result is an enlightening introduction to some of the most enduring political wisdom of all time.
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What listeners say about How to Run a Country
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Overall

- Gregorovitch
- 04-06-20
Must listen
a must read for the modern world no less important now than when it was penned
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- Marcos Povoa
- 28-03-18
Excellent!
I seem to read the history of all ages and nations in every page—and especially the history of our country for forty years past. Change the names and every anecdote will be applicable to us. —John Adams on Middleton’s Life of Cicero
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- Shawn Whiting
- 02-09-18
shorter than I expected
good listen but very short. I should have made more attention to duration in the listing.
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- Paul Luthi
- 23-08-13
Slightly boring
For the scholar, this would be a great listen, and it was entertaining and thought provoking at first, but as time wore on I found myself wondering why I bought it.
1 person found this helpful