Kings and desperate menTransaction Publishers, 1.11.2009 - 323 sivua The goal of Kings and Desperate Men is to provide a picture of eighteenth-century England up to the French Revolution. Kronenberger's work lies much closer to a social chronicle than an orthodox history, and is more concerned with manners and tastes than with treaties and wars. Kings and Desperate Men reveals what life was like for both aristocrats and commoners: their family lives, experience of larger society, habits, diet, fashions, religion, and artistic tastes. In tracing these topics for both city and country dwellers, he artfully communicates the very real division between the vivacity of London and the regular, fixed, and monotonous character of country life. The division is vital to understanding the age and the transformations it would experience. Yet Kronenberger does not ignore the more traditional historical landmarks. Kroenberger treats the characters of the leading political actors: Walpole, Bolingbroke, Burke, Fox, and Pitt, while providing the reader with a sweeping account of the formation of political parties and constitutional shifts of power between the monarchy and parliament. Students of the period who despair at its political complexities will fi nd much to appreciate in Kronenberger's condensed and easy to understand formulations. As for philosophy, Kronenberger refers to thinkers and ideas as they influence English life; especially Locke and Hume. Their ideas and reputations are explained as part of the character of society. The same is true for economics. More attention is given to the social gains of middle-class shopkeepers and the eighteenth-century zeal for stock speculation than to formal schools of thought. Especially notable is Kronenberger's treatment of both the arts and the artists of the eighteenth century-theatre, opera, music, literature, architecture, and painting. |
Kirjan sisältä
Tulokset 1 - 5 kokonaismäärästä 32
... French Revolution. The whole thing lies England until the time of the French Revolution. The whole thing lies much closer to a social chronicle than an orthodox history-book, and is much closer to a social chronicle than an orthodox ...
... French Revolution. The whole thing lies much closer to a social chronicle than an orthodox history-book, and is more concerned with manners and tastes than with treaties and wars. All the same, I have certainly not sought to restrict ...
... French ambitions; but as victories piled up for England and the struggle still dragged on, it became clear that it was also something else. The Whigs need not be considered any the less patriotic because they had a stake in the war, but ...
... French in Flanders; then, when Louis's armies were about to invade Austria and besiege Vienna, Marlborough made a feint of moving against France from the Rhine, only to wheel secretly across Germany and meet the enemy at Blenheim ...
... French spy stabbed Harley and so made a popular martyr of him, Bolingbroke was furious that it was not he who had been stabbed; and when Harley was created an earl and Bolingbroke only a viscount, the sense of injury deepened. Now more ...
Sisältö
3 | |
16 | |
Two or Three Characters | 25 |
Walpole and the House of Hanover | 42 |
Arisocrats with a Portrait of One of Them | 60 |
Shopkeepers | 89 |
The Poor | 98 |
The Arts | 108 |
Bath | 183 |
The Wesleyan Movement | 189 |
Empire and Revolution | 203 |
Kings and Counsellors | 215 |
The Great World | 247 |
The World Below | 263 |
The World Within | 273 |
The Bully and the Fop | 309 |
The Artist | 131 |
Country Matters | 161 |
The Country Gentleman | 168 |
Oxford and Cambridge | 175 |
READING LIST | 321 |
INDEX | i |
Muita painoksia - Näytä kaikki
Kings and Desperate Men: Life in Eighteenth-century England Louis Kronenberger Rajoitettu esikatselu - 2017 |
Kings and Desperate Men: Life in Eighteenth-century England Louis Kronenberger Rajoitettu esikatselu - 2017 |