Four Fools in the Age of Reason: Laughter, Cruelty, and Power in Early Modern Germany

by Dorinda Outram

Unveiling the nearly lost world of the court fools of eighteenth-century Germany, Dorinda Outram shows that laughter was an essential instrument of power. Whether jovial or cruel, mirth altered social and political relations.

Outram takes us first to the court of Frederick William I of Prussia, who emerges not only as an administrative reformer and notorious militarist but also as a "master of fools," a ruler who used fools to prop up his...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813942012
• ISBN13: 9780813942018
• Release Date: April 2019
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 9.1" x 9.3"