Anti-Dictator (Unabridged): optional

· Slingshot Books LLC · Narrated by Richard Lambert, Todd Legace, Eduardo Brimer, and Teresa Keller
Audiobook
2 hr 7 min
Unabridged
Want a free 12 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline. 
Add

About this audiobook

Étienne de La Boétie was the closest friend of Michel de Montaigne and the subject of the latter's famous essay "On Friendship." Here, however, he tackles a different, more impersonal relationship: that of ruler and ruled. The argument in this work is encapsulated in this quote: "A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it." Montaigne claimed that Boétie composed this work at the age of 18, and it was published over a decade after the young man's tragic death at 32. Some commentators up to the present day have argued that Montaigne himself was the author, and that he used the cover of his late friend's name because of its radical content. Whatever the truth, these words have inspired anti-authoritarian thinking for centuries.
Étienne de La Boétie was the closest friend of Michel de Montaigne and the subject of the latter's famous essay "On Friendship." Here, however, he tackles a different, more impersonal relationship: that of ruler and ruled. The argument in this work is encapsulated in this quote: "A people enslave...

Rate this audiobook

Tell us what you think.

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.