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

Weinbrot, Howard D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1421405164 ISBN 13: 9781421405162

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

"This is a deeply learned, provocative, readable book that will be an ornament to The Johns Hopkins University Press. It is a commandingly impressive book by one of the principal scholars in an established field."

(Robert D. Hume, Pennsylvania State University)

"Each chapter is brilliant, informed by Weinbrot's astonishingly wide reading and ability to make the past come alive... As he has done before, Weinbrot makes serious intellectual history fun... Highly recommended."

(Choice)

"Professor Weinbrot ranges wide and delves deep in this study, which could nostalgically be called intellectual history... Moreover, Weinbrot provides accurate and succinct historical summaries along the way."

(Robert G. Walker Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer)

"Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture is a formidable work of scholarship written by one of the period’s sharpest critics. Its erudition is pronounced, its analysis acute..."

(Digital Defoe)

"Weinbrot’s examination of the gradual evolution of English cultural perceptions of religious "others" makes an important contribution to eighteenth-century studies."

(The University of Chicago Press)

"Mr. Weinbrot’s study is an infinitely rewarding sourcebook for important eighteenth-century religious concepts (including passive obedience, the Thirtieth of January Sermon, or Augustinianism) and movements (such as Methodism). Without doubt, he offers a most impressive reconstruc- tion of the raging religious feuds. Moreover, his study of Defoe’s monumental Shortest Way with the Dissenters is as careful as it is penetrating. His book is informed by his keen sense of injustice: its pages are suffused with his indignation about cruelties, such as the ‘‘state terrorism’’..."

(Scriblerian)

"... a watershed moment in our field."

(Notes and Queries)

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1421405164
• ISBN 13: 9781421405162
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 392