The Burden of Office: Agamemnon and Other Losers

By Joseph Tussman

Categories: Literature & Fiction, Politics & Social Sciences

Philosopher Joseph Tussman uses retellings of classic works to examine the duties and dilemmas of holding public office. Drawing on Homer's Agamemnon, Shakespeare, Plato and other sources, he explores how leaders must balance personal desires with the demands of their roles, and why so many fail. Tussman's idiosyncratic readings offer reflections on responsibility, authority and political judgment. The essays grew out of his teaching at Berkeley.

Recommended by 1 person

• Shane Parrish: “ Tussman was a professor at Cal Berkeley in the ’60s and ’70s, and in this book does some very idiosyncratic retelling of a few classic stories: Antigone, the Odyssey, King Lear, and parts of the Bible among them.”