Audiobooks by Alexander Lee

Ghetto: The Jews of Venice

"A sweeping, riveting history of the Venetian Ghetto, the world's first Jewish ghetto. In the early sixteenth century, amidst the ruins of war, and in an atmosphere of religious hatred, the world's first Jewish 'ghetto' was established in Venice. Constrained in cramped, often insanitary conditions, the Jews who were forced to live there were extorted, abused and subjected to countless humiliating restrictions. Before long, Venice's Ghetto became the prototype for ghettos throughout Europe, paving the way for a more vicious and enduring form of antisemitism. Yet the Ghetto's story is also a testament of hope. Despite all they faced through the centuries, its residents thrived, creating a flourishing literary, musical and religious community. They sustained Venice's economy - and, as more migrants arrived, the Ghetto became a microcosm of the Jewish world. Alexander Lee traces this vivid story from the first Jewish arrivals in the early fourteenth century to the present day, reconstructing the Ghetto through the eyes of its inhabitants - from the domestic squabbles of a sixteenth-century rabbi to the agonising wait of a family bound for Auschwitz. Authoritative, detailed and incomparably intimate, this definitive history offers a fitting monument to the Ghetto's past - and powerful lessons for the future."

Alexander Lee (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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[Swedish] - Ledarskap och statskonst: Studier i makt

"Machiavellis observation om ledarskapets svåra balansgång är lika relevant i vår tid, som den en gång var i 1500-talets Florens. Kinas framväxt, Rysslands attack mot Ukraina och den växande politiska och ekonomiska närvaron i den globala södern har aktualiserat frågan om vikten av kompetent ledarskap inom politiskt styre. Denna ljudbok utforskar utmaningarna för ledarskap och statskonst i en allt mer komplex värld och ställer frågan huruvida vi kan skapa politiska eliter som är kapabla att på ett säkert vis vägleda väst genom de många prövningar vi står inför. Genom att se till vårt förflutna såväl som till vår samtid undersöker världsledande forskare och skribenter hur ledarskapsidéer har utvecklats genom historien för att ge oss en större förståelse för statskonsten och för vilka färdigheter och organisationer som krävs för att driva små stater, stora imperier och allt däremellan."

Alexander Lee, Ali Ansari, Alina Polyakova, Andreas Rödder, Anna Wieslander, Benedetta Berti, Charles Moore, Claire Coutinho, Daisy Dunn, David Butterfield, Edward Stringer, Elisabeth Braw, Francis J. Gavin, Fredrik Logevall, Gudrun Persson, Henrik Meinander, Iskander Rehman, J. C. D. Clark, James Marriott, John Bew, Julian Jackson, Katja Hoyer, Kenneth Payne, Kentaro Fujimoto, Kori Schake, Kristin Ven Bruusgaard, Lucy Ward, Michael Scott, Munira Mirza, Nathan Shachar, Philip Zelikow, Rory Medcalf, Sergey Radchenko (Author), Per Runhammar (Narrator)

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Machiavelli: His Life and Times

"Thanks to the invidious reputation of his most famous work, The Prince, Niccolo? Machiavelli exerts a unique hold over the popular imagination. But was Machiavelli as sinister as he is often thought to be? Might he not have been an infinitely more sympathetic figure, prone to political missteps, professional failures and personal dramas? In Machiavelli: His Life and Times, Alexander Lee reveals the man behind the myth, following him from cradle to grave, from his father's penury and the abuse he suffered at a teacher's hands, to his marriage and his many affairs (with both men and women), to his political triumphs and, ultimately, his fall from grace and exile. In doing so, Lee uncovers hitherto unobserved connections between Machiavelli's life and thought. He also reveals the world through which Machiavelli moved: from the great halls of Renaissance Florence to the court of the Borgia pope Alexander VI, from the dungeons of the Stinche prison to the Rucellai garden, where he would begin to write some of his last great works. As much a portrait of an age as of a uniquely engaging man, Lee's gripping and definitive biography takes the reader into Machiavelli's world - and his work - more completely than ever before."

Alexander Lee (Author), Jonathan Keeble (Narrator)

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