Illusory Consensus


Book Description

Alexander Pettit analyzes the formation of and the reaction against the notion of a unified opposition to England's de facto prime minister Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), the "great man" of Scriblerian satire who was reviled throughout the 1730s for his hostility to the belles lettres, his alleged disregard of the royal prerogative, and his concentration of power in an oligarchy of parliamentary "placemen." The discussion draws extensively on ephemeral plays, sermons, pamphlets, and newspapers that in their own day were regarded as significant contributions to the political debate. Pettit shows that the myth of coherent anti-Walpoleanism was promoted vigorously by Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751), cofounder of the popular opposition weekly, the Craftsman. But Pettit argues that much of the anti-Walpole literature of the 1730s responds anxiously to Bolingbroke's prescriptive theorizing and questions or criticizes the terms of his appeals to consensus. The opposition was fundamentally in disagreement about how to formulate its objection to modern government. Bolingbroke's reductive fantasy of the opposition has been regarded charitably by modern commentators, most of whom have chosen to regard the "print-wars" as the occasion for Bolingbroke's major political treatises or as background to the satire of his friends, the Scriblerians. This emphasis on a small and interconnected group of writers and sources, however, has caused scholars to neglect the opposition's diversity and its lack of coherence.




Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture, 1660–1780


Book Description

A distinguished critic traces the growing, but always threatened, trend toward political and religious tolerance from the mid-seventeenth to the late eighteenth century in Britain. Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRL Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture, 1660–1780 chronicles changes in contentious politics and religion and their varied representations in British letters from the mid-seventeenth to the late eighteenth century. An uncertain trend toward tolerance and away from painful discord significantly influenced authors who reflected on and enhanced germane aspects of British literary and intellectual life. The movement was stymied during the painful Gordon Riots in June 1780, from which Britain needed to repair itself. Howard D. Weinbrot's broad-ranging interdisciplinary study considers sermons, satire, political and religious polemic, Anglo-French relations, biblical and theological commentary, Methodism, legal history, and the novel. Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture, 1660–1780 analyzes the texts and contexts of several major and minor authors, including Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Olaudah Equiano, Maria De Fleury, Lord George Gordon, Nathaniel Lancaster, Henry Sacheverell, Tobias Smollett, and Edward Synge.




The Eighteenth Century


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Woman, Church and State


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