Gratitude: An Intellectual History

by Peter J. Leithart

Book Overview

Gratitude is often understood as etiquette rather than ethics, an emotion rather than politics. It was not always so. From Seneca to Shakespeare, gratitude was a public virtue. The circle of benefaction and return of service worked to make society strong. But at the beginning of the modern era, European thinkers began to imagine a political economy freed from the burdens of gratitude. Though this rethinking was part of a larger process of secularization,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1602584508
• ISBN13: 9781602584501
• Release Date: June 2018
• Publisher: Baylor University Press
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"