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 56
... true delight in art. Foreign, prove our point.” England took no true delight in art. Foreign, especially Italian, paintings were collected for the most part in especially Italian, paintings were collected for the most part in the way of ...
... true hinge of the matter lay elsewhere -— in the vital question of whether the British sovereign ruled by divine right or reigned by grace of Parliament. “ Divine right ” beheaded Charles I. “ Divine right ” drove James II across the ...
... true Hanoverians like Marlborough conspired for a while. And as time went on, the conspiring became more meaningful. Until the Whigs' downfall the Hanoverian succession had been relatively safe, first because the Whigs supported it, and ...
... true enough that up in Scotland many men were waiting to raise his standard. But all these made rather a brave show than a strong army at one's back. Bolingbroke was working in the dark, and knew he was. At this point, however, he saw ...
... true, the Pretender sought to gain the throne through a Scottish insurrection that was easily put down. And the two frustrated men came together for a time when Bolingbroke in exile joined the Pretender's court. But not long afterwards ...
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 |