DAVID WOMERSLEY
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198187332
- eISBN:
- 9780191718861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187332.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The short conclusion draws out the implications of this study for both the reputation of Gibbon himself, and also for our ideas of late eighteenth-century authorship.
The short conclusion draws out the implications of this study for both the reputation of Gibbon himself, and also for our ideas of late eighteenth-century authorship.
Alison Kennedy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199215300
- eISBN:
- 9780191706929
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215300.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines Priestley's different perspectives as a historian. The discussion is divided into three parts: the first is concerned with Joseph Priestley the historian, the second with ...
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This chapter examines Priestley's different perspectives as a historian. The discussion is divided into three parts: the first is concerned with Joseph Priestley the historian, the second with Priestley the theologian as historian and Biblical critic, and the third with the importance of his legacy in this latter respect. A brief comparison is made between Priestley's approach to the relationship between religion and history and that of David Hume and Edward Gibbon, two great historians of the 18th century. Two works by Priestley are analyzed: Lectures on History and General Policy, delivered at Warrington Academy in the late 1760s and revised and finally published in 1788, which deals with his secular approach to history; and An History of the Corruptions of Christianity, published six years earlier, in 1782. The latter reveals a different approach to historical understanding within a theological context.Less
This chapter examines Priestley's different perspectives as a historian. The discussion is divided into three parts: the first is concerned with Joseph Priestley the historian, the second with Priestley the theologian as historian and Biblical critic, and the third with the importance of his legacy in this latter respect. A brief comparison is made between Priestley's approach to the relationship between religion and history and that of David Hume and Edward Gibbon, two great historians of the 18th century. Two works by Priestley are analyzed: Lectures on History and General Policy, delivered at Warrington Academy in the late 1760s and revised and finally published in 1788, which deals with his secular approach to history; and An History of the Corruptions of Christianity, published six years earlier, in 1782. The latter reveals a different approach to historical understanding within a theological context.
Adam Rogers and Richard Hingley
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199584727
- eISBN:
- 9780191595301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584727.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines the intellectual context of Edward Gibbon's monumental and highly influential work The decline and fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) and its role in the complex history and ...
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This chapter examines the intellectual context of Edward Gibbon's monumental and highly influential work The decline and fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) and its role in the complex history and genealogy of imperialism. It also addresses the impact of the notion of ‘decline’ both on Gibbon's contemporaries and on later writers, thinkers, and politicians in Britain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when imperialism and the idea of British imperial decline had become major topics for discussion and debate. As a historical work, The decline and fall particularly influenced the writings of the prominent Oxford ancient historian Francis Haverfield (1860–1919), whose publications absorbed many contemporary attitudes about imperialism. Haverfield's work, in turn, influenced the development of the discipline of Roman archaeology for decades to come, especially concerning the themes of cultural superiority and decline.Less
This chapter examines the intellectual context of Edward Gibbon's monumental and highly influential work The decline and fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) and its role in the complex history and genealogy of imperialism. It also addresses the impact of the notion of ‘decline’ both on Gibbon's contemporaries and on later writers, thinkers, and politicians in Britain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when imperialism and the idea of British imperial decline had become major topics for discussion and debate. As a historical work, The decline and fall particularly influenced the writings of the prominent Oxford ancient historian Francis Haverfield (1860–1919), whose publications absorbed many contemporary attitudes about imperialism. Haverfield's work, in turn, influenced the development of the discipline of Roman archaeology for decades to come, especially concerning the themes of cultural superiority and decline.
B. W. Young
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199256228
- eISBN:
- 9780191719660
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256228.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter uses the response of a prominent Christian reader of Gibbon, John Henry Newman, to explore how 18th-century unbelief was worried over, and occasionally accommodated within the available ...
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This chapter uses the response of a prominent Christian reader of Gibbon, John Henry Newman, to explore how 18th-century unbelief was worried over, and occasionally accommodated within the available framework of religious apologetic in 19th-century Britain. The example of the liberal Anglican historian Henry Hart Milman, Oxford's Professor of Poetry when Newman was a young fellow of Oriel, similarly demonstrates that Gibbon's contribution to ecclesiastical history was capable of being accommodated within a variety of liberal Anglican theology strongly influenced by those developments in German historical thought of which Newman remained willfully ignorant.Less
This chapter uses the response of a prominent Christian reader of Gibbon, John Henry Newman, to explore how 18th-century unbelief was worried over, and occasionally accommodated within the available framework of religious apologetic in 19th-century Britain. The example of the liberal Anglican historian Henry Hart Milman, Oxford's Professor of Poetry when Newman was a young fellow of Oriel, similarly demonstrates that Gibbon's contribution to ecclesiastical history was capable of being accommodated within a variety of liberal Anglican theology strongly influenced by those developments in German historical thought of which Newman remained willfully ignorant.
Garth Fowden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158532
- eISBN:
- 9781400848164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158532.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This book examines history and thought “before and after Muhammad” by offering a new perspective on the debate about “the West and the Rest,” about America's destiny and Europe's identity. One party ...
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This book examines history and thought “before and after Muhammad” by offering a new perspective on the debate about “the West and the Rest,” about America's destiny and Europe's identity. One party explains how Europe and eventually North America—the North Atlantic world—left the rest in the dust from about 1500. The other side argues that Asia—China, Japan, and the Islamic trio of Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans—remained largely free of European encroachment until the mid-1700s, but then either collapsed for internal reasons, or else were gradually undermined by colonial powers' superior technological, economic, and military power. In seeking to overhaul the foundations of this debate, especially as regards the role of Islam and the Islamic world, the book reformulates the history of the First Millennium, by the end of which Islam had matured sufficiently to be compared with patristic Christianity, in order to fit Islam into it. The book draws primarily on Edward Gibbon's account of East Rome and Islam.Less
This book examines history and thought “before and after Muhammad” by offering a new perspective on the debate about “the West and the Rest,” about America's destiny and Europe's identity. One party explains how Europe and eventually North America—the North Atlantic world—left the rest in the dust from about 1500. The other side argues that Asia—China, Japan, and the Islamic trio of Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans—remained largely free of European encroachment until the mid-1700s, but then either collapsed for internal reasons, or else were gradually undermined by colonial powers' superior technological, economic, and military power. In seeking to overhaul the foundations of this debate, especially as regards the role of Islam and the Islamic world, the book reformulates the history of the First Millennium, by the end of which Islam had matured sufficiently to be compared with patristic Christianity, in order to fit Islam into it. The book draws primarily on Edward Gibbon's account of East Rome and Islam.
Miloš Ković
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199574605
- eISBN:
- 9780191595134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199574605.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
This chapter examines the process of the formation of Disraeli's initial understandings of the East and the Eastern Question. The social and political context within which the young Disraeli grew up ...
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This chapter examines the process of the formation of Disraeli's initial understandings of the East and the Eastern Question. The social and political context within which the young Disraeli grew up is scrutinized, as well as the influence of his Jewish origins and the personality of his father, Isaac D'Israeli. The influence of the liberal Toryism of Canning and the romanticism of Lord Byron on the shaping of Disraeli's understanding of the Eastern Question are equally stressed. Finally, the influence of Gibbon's pessimistic view of the 'slavic races' of Eastern Europe as examples of ‘barbarism’ and ‘backwardness’ is also highlighted.Less
This chapter examines the process of the formation of Disraeli's initial understandings of the East and the Eastern Question. The social and political context within which the young Disraeli grew up is scrutinized, as well as the influence of his Jewish origins and the personality of his father, Isaac D'Israeli. The influence of the liberal Toryism of Canning and the romanticism of Lord Byron on the shaping of Disraeli's understanding of the Eastern Question are equally stressed. Finally, the influence of Gibbon's pessimistic view of the 'slavic races' of Eastern Europe as examples of ‘barbarism’ and ‘backwardness’ is also highlighted.
J. B. BULLEN
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128885
- eISBN:
- 9780191671722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128885.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The term ‘Renaissance’ is a relatively modern idea. It did not exist in the eighteenth century, and even in the nineteenth century it had a meaning rather different from ours. Our use of the word ...
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The term ‘Renaissance’ is a relatively modern idea. It did not exist in the eighteenth century, and even in the nineteenth century it had a meaning rather different from ours. Our use of the word ‘Renaissance’ presupposes a view of history not shared by former generations. To the modern reader, the word ‘Renaissance’ brings to mind activities as diverse as architecture, painting, scientific and geographical discoveries, the political activities of the Italian city states, even Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of anatomy and mechanics. But this collection of signifiers would have had no significance for the eighteenth-century mind because for the eighteenth-century the various fifteenth-century revivals, literary, artistic, scientific, political, and philosophical, were independent movements existing largely in isolation from each other. Yet the myth of the Renaissance does have its roots in eighteenth-century historiography. This chapter looks at the foundations of Renaissance historiography in the eighteenth century, focusing on the works of Voltaire in France and Edward Gibbon in England.Less
The term ‘Renaissance’ is a relatively modern idea. It did not exist in the eighteenth century, and even in the nineteenth century it had a meaning rather different from ours. Our use of the word ‘Renaissance’ presupposes a view of history not shared by former generations. To the modern reader, the word ‘Renaissance’ brings to mind activities as diverse as architecture, painting, scientific and geographical discoveries, the political activities of the Italian city states, even Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of anatomy and mechanics. But this collection of signifiers would have had no significance for the eighteenth-century mind because for the eighteenth-century the various fifteenth-century revivals, literary, artistic, scientific, political, and philosophical, were independent movements existing largely in isolation from each other. Yet the myth of the Renaissance does have its roots in eighteenth-century historiography. This chapter looks at the foundations of Renaissance historiography in the eighteenth century, focusing on the works of Voltaire in France and Edward Gibbon in England.
Ralph Lerner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226353296
- eISBN:
- 9780226353326
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226353326.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
We love our opinions and resist efforts by others to have us reconsider, let alone change, what we are pleased to treat as settled truths. Both philosophers and far-sighted political actors have long ...
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We love our opinions and resist efforts by others to have us reconsider, let alone change, what we are pleased to treat as settled truths. Both philosophers and far-sighted political actors have long understood this about their intended audiences and have adjusted their speech accordingly. To the extent that they mean to convey unsettling thoughts, writers may resort to camouflage and concealment. Rather than shock their publics by direct confrontation, they fall back on various devices by which they would insinuate their message without raising alarm. This book is premised on the notion that this camouflage is best detected by paying attention to the obvious and by keeping our eyes wide open. Its essays are experiments testing whether an admittedly naïve reading can yield a good understanding of what some thinkers had in view when trying to stir their audiences to better, second thoughts. These thinkers are a diverse lot, to be sure—Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Edward Gibbon, Judah Halevi, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Moses Maimonides, and Alexis de Tocqueville—but resemble one another in taking up the challenge of artfully challenging others.Less
We love our opinions and resist efforts by others to have us reconsider, let alone change, what we are pleased to treat as settled truths. Both philosophers and far-sighted political actors have long understood this about their intended audiences and have adjusted their speech accordingly. To the extent that they mean to convey unsettling thoughts, writers may resort to camouflage and concealment. Rather than shock their publics by direct confrontation, they fall back on various devices by which they would insinuate their message without raising alarm. This book is premised on the notion that this camouflage is best detected by paying attention to the obvious and by keeping our eyes wide open. Its essays are experiments testing whether an admittedly naïve reading can yield a good understanding of what some thinkers had in view when trying to stir their audiences to better, second thoughts. These thinkers are a diverse lot, to be sure—Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Edward Gibbon, Judah Halevi, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Moses Maimonides, and Alexis de Tocqueville—but resemble one another in taking up the challenge of artfully challenging others.
John Cannon
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204527
- eISBN:
- 9780191676321
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204527.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
This is a reinterpretation of the Georgian political order. Samuel Johnson's life (1709–84) spans most of the 18th century. His contacts in the literary and cultural, scholarly, and political worlds ...
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This is a reinterpretation of the Georgian political order. Samuel Johnson's life (1709–84) spans most of the 18th century. His contacts in the literary and cultural, scholarly, and political worlds were wide, including Gibbon, Goldsmith, Fox, Burke, Reynolds, Adam Smith, and many others. This book uses Johnson's career as a point of entry into Hanoverian England. The book explores major contemporary issues, such as education, the poor, capital punishment, the colonies, and Toryism. He challenges many assumptions about Johnson's own attitudes, and offers a substantial modification to the traditional picture of Johnson and the political world of the 18th century.Less
This is a reinterpretation of the Georgian political order. Samuel Johnson's life (1709–84) spans most of the 18th century. His contacts in the literary and cultural, scholarly, and political worlds were wide, including Gibbon, Goldsmith, Fox, Burke, Reynolds, Adam Smith, and many others. This book uses Johnson's career as a point of entry into Hanoverian England. The book explores major contemporary issues, such as education, the poor, capital punishment, the colonies, and Toryism. He challenges many assumptions about Johnson's own attitudes, and offers a substantial modification to the traditional picture of Johnson and the political world of the 18th century.
Marilyn Butler
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129684
- eISBN:
- 9780191671838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129684.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
As a novelist, Jane Austen draws at large on the literature of her century. She uses the insights and techniques of many earlier writers, not all of whom are by any means conservative. Poets of a ...
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As a novelist, Jane Austen draws at large on the literature of her century. She uses the insights and techniques of many earlier writers, not all of whom are by any means conservative. Poets of a philosophical temper, like Thomas Gray and William Cowper, historians like David Hume and Edward Gibbon, admire the wise man who stands aside from events both because he cannot influence them, and because they are not worth influencing. Austen's novels contain central characters more given to reflection than fictional heroes and heroines of the first part of the century, and she makes it clear how much she values the probings of the rational moral intelligence. Even the sentimentalists, whom she criticizes both for their opinions and for their execution, presumably bequeathed to her a new awareness of the reader's special relationship with the hero, and an example of how it might be influenced.Less
As a novelist, Jane Austen draws at large on the literature of her century. She uses the insights and techniques of many earlier writers, not all of whom are by any means conservative. Poets of a philosophical temper, like Thomas Gray and William Cowper, historians like David Hume and Edward Gibbon, admire the wise man who stands aside from events both because he cannot influence them, and because they are not worth influencing. Austen's novels contain central characters more given to reflection than fictional heroes and heroines of the first part of the century, and she makes it clear how much she values the probings of the rational moral intelligence. Even the sentimentalists, whom she criticizes both for their opinions and for their execution, presumably bequeathed to her a new awareness of the reader's special relationship with the hero, and an example of how it might be influenced.
Mordechai Feingold
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199510146
- eISBN:
- 9780191700958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199510146.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
In his appraisal of England's political, religious, and cultural scene following the Restoration, Gilbert Burnet singled out the esteemed state of learning at Oxford University, and ‘chiefly the ...
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In his appraisal of England's political, religious, and cultural scene following the Restoration, Gilbert Burnet singled out the esteemed state of learning at Oxford University, and ‘chiefly the study of the oriental tongues’. More than a century later, this perception still lingered. When the young Edward Gibbon arrived at Oxford, his ambition was to master oriental learning. Although this was not to be, many years later Gibbon recalled that what had tired his youthful enthusiasm was the fact that ‘since the days of Pocock and Hyde, oriental learning has always been the pride of Oxford’. These two acute observers did not exaggerate. The 17th century was, indeed, the heyday of oriental studies at Oxford. During this period, the university became a truly major centre for Hebrew and Arabic, drawing from all over Europe students and visitors eager to study with local scholars or use the rich resources of the Bodleian Library. The principal incentive for the study of Hebrew and Arabic was their application to scripture and their contribution towards the bolstering of Christianity.Less
In his appraisal of England's political, religious, and cultural scene following the Restoration, Gilbert Burnet singled out the esteemed state of learning at Oxford University, and ‘chiefly the study of the oriental tongues’. More than a century later, this perception still lingered. When the young Edward Gibbon arrived at Oxford, his ambition was to master oriental learning. Although this was not to be, many years later Gibbon recalled that what had tired his youthful enthusiasm was the fact that ‘since the days of Pocock and Hyde, oriental learning has always been the pride of Oxford’. These two acute observers did not exaggerate. The 17th century was, indeed, the heyday of oriental studies at Oxford. During this period, the university became a truly major centre for Hebrew and Arabic, drawing from all over Europe students and visitors eager to study with local scholars or use the rich resources of the Bodleian Library. The principal incentive for the study of Hebrew and Arabic was their application to scripture and their contribution towards the bolstering of Christianity.
Arnoud S. Q. Visser
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199765935
- eISBN:
- 9780199895168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765935.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Proceeding from two skeptical assessments of Augustine's authority in the Reformation by the Enlightenment philosophes Voltaire and Edward Gibbon, this epilogue explores the implications of ...
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Proceeding from two skeptical assessments of Augustine's authority in the Reformation by the Enlightenment philosophes Voltaire and Edward Gibbon, this epilogue explores the implications of Augustine's varied reception in the sixteenth century for the history of ideas. It concludes, first, that the rise of confessional divisions did not merely repress intellectual activities, but also promoted new scholarship. Second, and related, it reconsiders the impact of Renaissance humanism on individual reading practices. In contrast to the movement's claim to return to the sources, humanist scholarship and education continued to serve contemporary needs. Individual readers used humanist techniques to read the same ancient sources in strikingly different ways.Less
Proceeding from two skeptical assessments of Augustine's authority in the Reformation by the Enlightenment philosophes Voltaire and Edward Gibbon, this epilogue explores the implications of Augustine's varied reception in the sixteenth century for the history of ideas. It concludes, first, that the rise of confessional divisions did not merely repress intellectual activities, but also promoted new scholarship. Second, and related, it reconsiders the impact of Renaissance humanism on individual reading practices. In contrast to the movement's claim to return to the sources, humanist scholarship and education continued to serve contemporary needs. Individual readers used humanist techniques to read the same ancient sources in strikingly different ways.
Carole Hillenbrand
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625727
- eISBN:
- 9780748671359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625727.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The introduction justifies the publication of yet another book on the battle of Manzikert in 1071, described by Runciman as the most decisive disaster in Byzantine history. The chapter summarises ...
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The introduction justifies the publication of yet another book on the battle of Manzikert in 1071, described by Runciman as the most decisive disaster in Byzantine history. The chapter summarises existing scholarship on Manzikert, and explains that this book will provide full coverage of the surviving medieval Arabic and Persian accounts of the battle. The book aims especially to show how the memory of Manzikert gradually became a historiographical and propaganda tool for portraying spiritual truths, for praising Turkish rule in the Middle East and for demonstrating the inherent superiority of Islam over Christianity. The introduction then proceeds to an analysis of the complex political situation in the Middle East in the eleventh century and summarises the events which led up to the battle itself. The story of the battle itself is then given in broad outline, using Byzantine sources, including the eye-witness account of Attaleiates, as well as Muslim chronicles.Less
The introduction justifies the publication of yet another book on the battle of Manzikert in 1071, described by Runciman as the most decisive disaster in Byzantine history. The chapter summarises existing scholarship on Manzikert, and explains that this book will provide full coverage of the surviving medieval Arabic and Persian accounts of the battle. The book aims especially to show how the memory of Manzikert gradually became a historiographical and propaganda tool for portraying spiritual truths, for praising Turkish rule in the Middle East and for demonstrating the inherent superiority of Islam over Christianity. The introduction then proceeds to an analysis of the complex political situation in the Middle East in the eleventh century and summarises the events which led up to the battle itself. The story of the battle itself is then given in broad outline, using Byzantine sources, including the eye-witness account of Attaleiates, as well as Muslim chronicles.
Phiroze Vasunia
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264393
- eISBN:
- 9780191734571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264393.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter reflects on the readings and uses of Virgil in British imperial contexts during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British interest in Virgil heightened during the middle of ...
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This chapter reflects on the readings and uses of Virgil in British imperial contexts during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British interest in Virgil heightened during the middle of the eighteenth century, when Britain was establishing its Second Empire. In the age of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare, Virgil was often deployed by writers in different imperial situations. Writers such as Edward Gibbon turned to Virgil not because of a desire to promote monarchical imperialism but with the aim of evaluating the mechanism of the empire, to explore its limits and contradictions, and to question its durability. In Victoria’s reign, when the empire in India seemed to several Britons to be long lasting, many prominent figures highlighted the providential and prophetic interpretations of Virgil, and speculated about an empire that was divinely ordained and infinite. Among these prominent personages were Tennyson, Auden, Bryce, and so on. These themes of British Empire within the context of Virgil’s writings are examined from the time of Gibbon to the Victorians, in order to describe the interweaving relationships and patterns that link Virgil and the history of the empire.Less
This chapter reflects on the readings and uses of Virgil in British imperial contexts during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British interest in Virgil heightened during the middle of the eighteenth century, when Britain was establishing its Second Empire. In the age of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare, Virgil was often deployed by writers in different imperial situations. Writers such as Edward Gibbon turned to Virgil not because of a desire to promote monarchical imperialism but with the aim of evaluating the mechanism of the empire, to explore its limits and contradictions, and to question its durability. In Victoria’s reign, when the empire in India seemed to several Britons to be long lasting, many prominent figures highlighted the providential and prophetic interpretations of Virgil, and speculated about an empire that was divinely ordained and infinite. Among these prominent personages were Tennyson, Auden, Bryce, and so on. These themes of British Empire within the context of Virgil’s writings are examined from the time of Gibbon to the Victorians, in order to describe the interweaving relationships and patterns that link Virgil and the history of the empire.
David Womersley
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198187332
- eISBN:
- 9780191718861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187332.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The publication of the first volume of The Decline and Fall in 1776 immediately embroiled Gibbon in a dispute concerning his supposed irreligion. This book follows the implications and ramifications ...
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The publication of the first volume of The Decline and Fall in 1776 immediately embroiled Gibbon in a dispute concerning his supposed irreligion. This book follows the implications and ramifications of Gibbon's sudden notoriety to recover the historian's experience of himself as author. It traces Gibbon's attempts to control, to manipulate, and at times to avail himself of, his public reputation from his first, silent, engagement with his critics when he revised the text of the first volume of The Decline and Fall, to that unfinished masterpiece of self-presentation, the Memoirs of My Life. It also shows how the debate about Gibbon's alleged hostility to Christianity shaped the posthumous publication of his Miscellaneous Works by his friend and literary executor, Lord Sheffield.Less
The publication of the first volume of The Decline and Fall in 1776 immediately embroiled Gibbon in a dispute concerning his supposed irreligion. This book follows the implications and ramifications of Gibbon's sudden notoriety to recover the historian's experience of himself as author. It traces Gibbon's attempts to control, to manipulate, and at times to avail himself of, his public reputation from his first, silent, engagement with his critics when he revised the text of the first volume of The Decline and Fall, to that unfinished masterpiece of self-presentation, the Memoirs of My Life. It also shows how the debate about Gibbon's alleged hostility to Christianity shaped the posthumous publication of his Miscellaneous Works by his friend and literary executor, Lord Sheffield.
LEON LITVACK
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263517
- eISBN:
- 9780191682582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263517.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter discusses Theodora Phranza, Neale’s first full-length novel set in the Christian East. It was originally published in parts in the Churchman’s Companion in 1853–4 and then as a single ...
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This chapter discusses Theodora Phranza, Neale’s first full-length novel set in the Christian East. It was originally published in parts in the Churchman’s Companion in 1853–4 and then as a single volume in 1857. This novel attempts to further the cause of unity by looking back to a time when East and West cooperated for the ultimate good. Britain’s interest in Constantinople involved her in the Crimean War. This situation in turn led Neale to write Theodora Phranza, a polemical novel which focused on the state of Orthodox Christians under the Ottoman rule.Less
This chapter discusses Theodora Phranza, Neale’s first full-length novel set in the Christian East. It was originally published in parts in the Churchman’s Companion in 1853–4 and then as a single volume in 1857. This novel attempts to further the cause of unity by looking back to a time when East and West cooperated for the ultimate good. Britain’s interest in Constantinople involved her in the Crimean War. This situation in turn led Neale to write Theodora Phranza, a polemical novel which focused on the state of Orthodox Christians under the Ottoman rule.
CATHERINE OSBORNE
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269427
- eISBN:
- 9780191683640
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269427.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Philosophy of Religion
This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study about the English Enlightenment. It investigated the religious controversies during this period and suggested that the traditional and ...
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This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study about the English Enlightenment. It investigated the religious controversies during this period and suggested that the traditional and prevalent notions of the Enlightenment still stand in need of considerable refinement. It acknowledged that for every David Hume there was during this period a myriad of religious apologists, and for every Edward Gibbon, whole coteries of intellectually respected clerical opponents.Less
This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study about the English Enlightenment. It investigated the religious controversies during this period and suggested that the traditional and prevalent notions of the Enlightenment still stand in need of considerable refinement. It acknowledged that for every David Hume there was during this period a myriad of religious apologists, and for every Edward Gibbon, whole coteries of intellectually respected clerical opponents.
DAVID WOMERSLEY
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198187332
- eISBN:
- 9780191718861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187332.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter compares the three versions Gibbon composed of the death of his father. Although the movement from version to version is a good example of Gibbon's polishing of style, when these ...
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This chapter compares the three versions Gibbon composed of the death of his father. Although the movement from version to version is a good example of Gibbon's polishing of style, when these versions are placed within the context of the swift development in Gibbon's political sentiments which was occurring at just the moment of their composition, it is clear that Gibbon's stylistic preferences were co-ordinated with the broader considerations that arose from his contemplation of the scene of European politics.Less
This chapter compares the three versions Gibbon composed of the death of his father. Although the movement from version to version is a good example of Gibbon's polishing of style, when these versions are placed within the context of the swift development in Gibbon's political sentiments which was occurring at just the moment of their composition, it is clear that Gibbon's stylistic preferences were co-ordinated with the broader considerations that arose from his contemplation of the scene of European politics.
DAVID WOMERSLEY
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198187332
- eISBN:
- 9780191718861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187332.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This introductory chapter sets out the general subject of the book and illustrates Gibbon's evolving relationship with his reader by analysing changes in the footnotes to The Decline and Fall as it ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the general subject of the book and illustrates Gibbon's evolving relationship with his reader by analysing changes in the footnotes to The Decline and Fall as it moves through its three instalments (published in 1776, 1781, and 1788). These changes in the style of the footnotes are related to the historian's increasingly deft management of his reputation. The final paragraphs describe and defend the deliberately promiscuous methodology of the book.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the general subject of the book and illustrates Gibbon's evolving relationship with his reader by analysing changes in the footnotes to The Decline and Fall as it moves through its three instalments (published in 1776, 1781, and 1788). These changes in the style of the footnotes are related to the historian's increasingly deft management of his reputation. The final paragraphs describe and defend the deliberately promiscuous methodology of the book.
Ralph Lerner
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226473154
- eISBN:
- 9780226473178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226473178.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive ...
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The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and here the book turns to six of them — Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Pierre Bayle, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Gibbon — to elucidate the strategies these men employed to persuade the heedless, the zealous, and the overly confident to pause and reconsider. As this book makes plain, all these men lived through periods marked by fanaticism, particularly with regard to religion and its relation to the state. In such a troubled context, advocating on behalf of skepticism and against tyranny could easily lead to censure, or even, as in More's case, execution. And so, the book reveals, these serious thinkers relied on humor to move their readers toward a more reasoned understanding of the world and our place in it. At once erudite and entertaining, this book is an eloquently thought-provoking look at the lives and writings of these masterly authors.Less
The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and here the book turns to six of them — Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Pierre Bayle, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Gibbon — to elucidate the strategies these men employed to persuade the heedless, the zealous, and the overly confident to pause and reconsider. As this book makes plain, all these men lived through periods marked by fanaticism, particularly with regard to religion and its relation to the state. In such a troubled context, advocating on behalf of skepticism and against tyranny could easily lead to censure, or even, as in More's case, execution. And so, the book reveals, these serious thinkers relied on humor to move their readers toward a more reasoned understanding of the world and our place in it. At once erudite and entertaining, this book is an eloquently thought-provoking look at the lives and writings of these masterly authors.
