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John Bryce Jordan proposes that the linkage between the male dancer and the stigma of effeminacy began in the early 18th century, rather than in the 19th century, as other dance writers and scholars have proposed. Through an analysis of writings in the Spectator, one of the first modern English‐language periodicals (London, 1711–41), Jordan demonstrates how concepts related to masculinity emerged through satire and social commentary, illuminating period understandings of dance as a socially meaningful, gendered practice. Characters who are deemed “problem men” are critiqued by “Mr. Spectator” for wardrobe, manners, and style of country dancing, and include Mr. Shapley, the “beau” (a woman's man, such as Dick Crastin and Tom Tulip), John Trott, Mr. Fanfly, and Mr. Prim. Rather than a marginal activity, dance is shown to be a prominent site for the performance of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors for men in early 18th‐century England.

The conclusion makes a case for women's involvement in political life, arguing that it needs to be understood in context. By no means all women, even at the level of the political elite, were politically active, yet women were an integral part of the political world of the 18th century. For many, involvement in political life was motivated by familial considerations, but the effectiveness of such involvement should not be underestimated. Furthermore, while questions about whether women made a difference might be hard to evaluate in national terms, in local or personal politics — in terms of places gained, preferments and promotions secured, votes won, and supporters wooed — there can be little doubt that they did.

This chapter strengthens the important claim made by the literary critic Terry Castle, who has argued for the need for modern scholars properly to appreciate a vitally important ‘spectral’ dimension in what she describes as Leslie Stephen's otherwise all too rational 18th century. Even though she respects the impetus behind W. E. H. Lecky's progressively rationalizing thesis in his History of the Rise and Progress of Rationalism in Europe (1865), she has offered her own richly suggestive series of discrete genealogies that account for the survival of the uncanny into the 19th century and rightly make much of its continuing power. This chapter, therefore, takes the form of an archaeology of the haunting sense of the 18th-century past in the 19th-century present. Haunting is both a reality and a metaphor in Vernon Lee, and the 18th century was an important factor in this experience of haunting, as it was also to prove to be for M. R. James.

This chapter explores Thomas Carlyle's fascination with the 18th century. It argues that Carlyle demonstrates a consistent response concerning the 18th century: a deep suspicion of its lack of heroism, either religious or political; its place as a historical rupture between the heroic age of the Reformation and the hollowness of modernity; the starkly contrasting roles played by France, Germany, and Britain in these developments; and the need for the prophet-historian to undo the secularizing worldliness of 18th-century philosophy if the soul of the 19th century were to be saved from this compromised inheritance. These themes are examined in relation to the monumental works he devoted early and late in his career to what he called the sceptical 18th century: The French Revolution and his History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great (1858-65).

This chapter explores Thomas Carlyle's portrayal of Frederick the Great. It is argued that Carlyle's heroic portrait of Frederick the Great allowed him to construct and indulge a nostalgic politics from afar. Whereas The French Revolution acquired a mass of readers and devotees, the work on Frederick was never to achieve anything like the same popularity; readers had grown tired of Carlyle's explorations of the 18th century.

This chapter describes 18th-century Russia after the death of Peter the Great as representing a distinct period in the history of Russian culture. It explains that this period marked a decisive break with the Muscovite past—although that break had been foreshadowed and assisted by earlier influences and trends. It adds that 18th-century Russia was an age of apprenticeship and imitation par excellence. It discusses that the death of Peter the Great was followed by a certain relaxation and reaction against his rule: the schools established by Peter could find no students, while intrigue and corruption ran rampant in government and administration. It explains that the Enlightenment image of Peter the great dominated 18th-century Russian thought and literature. The chapter also evaluates Catherine the Great's beliefs and principles, as well as her leadership.

Does any of this matter? Bach's passion repertory was sung, played, and thought about very differently in his own time. Our ways of performing, listening, and understanding are unlike those of the 18th century—hardly surprising given the distance in culture and time. This suggests that Bach's passion music, able to engage listeners even in radically different circumstances, is compelling at some fundamental level that transcends performance practices and contexts.

This introductory chapter discusses the book's intention, namely to investigate key issues relevant to understanding the intentions, expectations or assumptions of late 18th-century and 19th-century composers, and the conventions that informed the practice of musicians in general. The book focuses on the relationship between notation and performance, drawing upon written evidence and early recordings. It seeks to show how knowledge of historical practice can inform and enrich modern performance, broadening the performer's range of options and encouraging a more adventurous approach to the interpretation of Classical and Romantic repertoire. It argues that the late 20th century's rather strict adherence to the literal meaning of the notation is often unfaithful to the composer's expectations and invites a freer, more creative approach to the performance of this repertoire.

This chapter analyzes a familiar aesthetic experience in our everyday life: appreciation of the distinctive characteristics of objects, environments, and temporal contexts. It ranges from the quintessential attributes of a natural object, the ambience created by harmoniously-united diverse elements, sense of place, and seasonableness, illustrated by a number of examples from 18th century British aesthetics, Japanese culture, including literature, gardening, the tea ceremony, food, and packaging, and the Arts and Crafts movement. This aesthetic sensibility nurtures a moral sensibility by promoting an open-minded and respectful attitude toward what the objects offer, an attitude underlying today's ecological design premised upon designing with nature. At the same time, certain limits to this kind of aesthetic sensibility also need to be observed for moral, social, and political reasons in order to avoid aestheticization of suffering and misery, as well as guarding against denying minority taste in favor of preserving a sense of place.

This chapter discusses the great Händel Commemoration and how it exemplified the consolidation of a national culture of great power and durability. This posthumous apotheosis reveals a good deal about the development of British culture in the 18th century. In addition, it explains that the Protestant Reformation greatly intensified nationalism. Religious independence was then underpinned by a surge of cultural nationalism. Under Queen Elizabeth, resolutely Protestant and impeccably English, cultural achievement was married to political success to form a powerful source of legitimation. This chapter examines the sources of England’s wealth, particularly the advance of commerce which made the strongest and most widespread impression. Next, it discusses the country’s fourth national asset — liberty. It then explores the life of King George III.

This introductory chapter begins with the author's description of the beginnings of her interest in 18th-century elite women and politics. The author's approach to women's political involvement and research is then discussed. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.

For this book the 18th century has been extended at both ends. Although strict uniformity has not been imposed on all chapters, this volume is for the most part set between two dates traditionally taken as marking eras in British history: 1689, the year of the Glorious Revolution, an event seen by most English people as a time which ensured their liberties, and 1815, the year of Waterloo, the last battle in wars between Britain and France that had begun in 1689. During the first half of this century, occasional British ships defied Spanish claims to a monopoly of the navigation of the Pacific. In the second half, voyages of exploration were despatched to the Pacific, most notably those of James Cook. The British Empire of the first half of the 18th century was essentially an Atlantic one, peopled by inhabitants of British origin, and held together by economic and cultural ties with Britain, as much as by the exertion of authority. By the end of the 18th century, British economic interests were certainly becoming increasingly ‘global’, in the sense that they were spreading beyond the limits of the Empire.

This chapter argues that Burns's poetic self-fashioning was a successful attempt to achieve sentimental and cultural credit in the face of the practical financial difficulties that he faces as an Ayrshire farmer. Like others of his class, he was inculcated with the ideology of improvement but found it impossible to make practical headway due to undercapitalization and high rentals. Burns's alternative vocation as a poet is discussed in relation to his Commonplace Book, the Verse Epistles in the Kilmarnock Volume, and his most ambitious poem, ‘The Vision’. The chapter also analyses his relationship to patronage and his creation of a virtual community of upper class Ayrshire patrons, with reference to the social geography and the 18th-century cartography of Ayrshire.