Name Sebastian Grazia Role Author | ||
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Died 2001, Princeton, New Jersey, United States Awards Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography Books Of Time - Work - and Leisure, Machiavelli in Hell, A Country With No Name, The political community, Machiavelli all'inferno | ||
Sebastian de Grazia (1917- 2000) was an American author. Born in Chicago, he received his bachelor's degree and a doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago. During World War II he served in the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency as an analyst. In 1962-1988 he taught political philosophy at Rutgers University. He received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his 1989 book Machiavelli in Hell. He is also the author of The Political Community (1948), Errors of Psychotherapy (1952), and A Country with No Name (1997).
Leisure
De Grazia has been described as the "father of leisure". Of Time, Work, and Leisure (1962) puts forward the idea that traditionally leisure was not a matter of recreation as much as of contemplation, of expanding one's awareness and understanding of the world, and that the social context of this understanding of leisure has to a large extent been lost, and with it the notion of leisure being the pursuit of philosophy.