Treasons, Stratagems, And Spoils: How Leaders Make Practical Use Of Beliefs And Values

Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoilsis a sequel to the author's highly regardedStratagems and Spoils.Treason,the new word in the title, indicates a heightened attention to moralityto ideas of duty and conscienceas a foil to rational calculations of advantage. By providing sets of propositions and questions that illuminate narratives of political events, this book helps anyone interested in struggles for power understand politics and political leaders in their own and in other cultures. The method can be used to make sense of power struggles in peasant villages, electoral and presidential maneuvering in the United States, the confusions of post-Soviet Eastern Europe, or Gandhi's morality deployed as a weapon to drive the British out of India.

F. G. Bailey is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of fifteen books, the most recent being Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils (Westview, 2001), a companion volume and sequel to Stratagems and Spoils.