''The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascos, Palace Coups'' is a 2006 book by

Ron Rosenbaum Ronald Rosenbaum (born November 27, 1946) is an American literary journalist, literary critic, and novelist. Life and career Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in New York City, New York and grew up in Bay Shore, New York. He graduated fr ...

. Rosenbaum's account of the genesis of this book is that it arose out of his need to cure the depression into which he fell in the wake of the research and writing he did for '' Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil''. That book related his search among contemporary historians for an adequate explanation for Hitler's evil—and the underlying tension between "exceptionalist" explanations (Hitler was off the grid of 'normal' human behavior) versus naturalist explanations (Hitler was at the end of, but within, a continuum of human behaviors). The work left Rosenbaum so drained and gloomy that the only antidote he could find was "to start walking around the city ew Yorklistening to Shakespeare tapes on a Walkman."Jennie Rothernberg Gritz.
Shakespeare Unleashed
. ''The Atlantic''. December 2006 When the cure became his next big project, he adopted a parallel approach, focusing on the tension between exceptionalist and naturalist accounts of Shakespeare's creativity. His own inclination is, in the matter of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, exceptionalist. One has to invoke, he writes, "the boundary between

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

in trying the characterize this strange experience of deepening into bottomlessness" with each new reading or performance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare Wars Shakespearean scholarship Books of literary criticism 2006 non-fiction books