The Northern Renaissance: Crash Course European History #3 (2)

at a high school, better off being loved or feared?

Is it more important for a community to be fair or stable?

Should leaders prioritize virtue or effectiveness?

These are big, interesting questions, and I think they're worth considering.

But I'd also ask you to look at the lens through which you're approaching those questions.

Machiavelli's life was marked by endless wars and shifting alliances.

He saw many short-lived governments fail to achieve stability.

Christine de Pizan saw the intense oppression of women and the dismissal of their talents

and intellect.

Erasmus didn't exactly have an easy life--he was born out of wedlock and both his parents

died of plague when he was a teenager--but he saw a very different world in northern

Europe than Machiavelli saw in Italy, or than Christine de Pizan saw.

Where do you sit in the world, and how might that shape what kind of community you wish

to see?

Thanks for watching.

I'll see you next time.