Alumnus bookshelf: Dr Alexander Lee
Congratulations to postgraduate History alumnus, Dr Alexander Lee, who has just published his book, 'The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Disease and Excess in an Age of Beauty'.
Taking the reader on a shocking and often scandalous journey through Italian history, 'The Ugly Renaissance’ unmasks the social realities behind the surface of Renaissance art, from economic crises and political corruption to epidemics and murder.
Now an Associate Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick, Dr Lee is also a Founding Editor of The Utopian magazine.
Acclaimed historian
Describing Dr Lee as an “acclaimed historian and expert in the period”, publisher Random House says:
“The Renaissance is cloaked with an aura of beauty and brilliance. But behind the Mona Lisa's smile lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity and corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit”.