Acts of union

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Philip Hicks

This book shows how our idea of history was shaped by historians and their readers in eighteenth-century England. Philip Hicks reinterprets the historical writing of the early-modern era as a vibrant clash between ancient models for historical composition and a modernizing culture characterized by party politics, print, Christianity and antiquarian erudition, and traces the social, literary and political implications of neoclassical history for English culture at large. By paying unprecedented attention to historical genres and audiences, this study overturns the orthodox view of David Hume as simply a 'philosophical historian' and portrays him instead as a celebrated peer of Livy and Tacitus. By resuscitating neoclassical historiography, both Hume and the 1st Earl of Clarendon breathed life into their disparate political programs; by failing to come to grips with neoclassical ideals, Jonathan Swift and Lord Bolingbroke languished in the coveted role of Thucydidean historian of one's own times.

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Don H. Bialostosky and Lawrence D. Needham

So successful were the appeals to "genius" by the romantic poets that few critics since have paid much attention to the influence of rhetorical traditions on romantic expression. As the essays in this collection demonstrate, though the status of classical rhetoric declined during the nineteenth century, romantic genius did not sweep away rhetoric. Romantic writers drew upon a number of rhetorical traditions - sophistic, classical, biblical, and enlightenment - in the creation of their art, and interest in various aspects of the art of discourse remained strong. These essays - half of them commissioned for this volume - document the importance of these traditions in shaping the poetry, novels, and criticism of Coleridge, De Quincey, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake, Austen, and Scott. . The contributors are Stephen C. Behrendt, Don H. Bialostosky, Jerome Christensen, Richard W. Clancey, Klaus Dockhorn, James Engell, David Ginsberg, Bruce E. Graver, Scott Harshbarger, Theresa M. Kelley, J. Douglas Kneale, John R. Nabholtz, Lawrence D. Needham, Marie Secor, Nancy S. Struever, Leslie Tannenbaum, and Susan J. Wolfson.

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Angela Thirkell

The rituals of 19th century courtship, featuring Fanny Harcourt, 17, who is in London for the coronation of Queen Victoria. It is a time of feverish social activity and matchmaking, and the competition is intense.

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Panikos Panayi

For most of the nineteenth century, Germans represented the largest continental immigrant population in Britain, yet to date no study has concentrated on them. They entered the country for a combination of religious, political and economic reasons and established themselves in thriving immigrant communities. Hostility towards them spread throughout the 1800s and escalated with the growth of Anglo-German hostility in the period leading up to the outbreak of World War I. This thoroughly researched study fills a gap in the modern history of Britain and the history of German immigrant communities. It will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about Anglo-German relations, migration and ethnicity.