Reprint of the original, first published in 1866.

Rational Dissent was a branch of Protestant religious nonconformity which emerged to prominence in England between c. 1770 and c. 1800. While small, the movement provoked fierce opposition from both Anglicans and Orthodox Dissenters.

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The voices of non-conformity are brought to the fore in this new exploration of late seventeenth-century politics, religion and literature. 2022 Richard L. Greaves Prize Honourable Mention Whilst scholars have recently offered a much deeper and more persuasive account of the centrality of religious issues in shaping the political and cultural worlds of Restoration England, much of this has been broad-brush and the voices of individual established Church figures have been much more clearly heard than those of dissenters. This book offers a fresh and challenging new approach to the voices that the confessional state had no prospect of silencing. It provides case studies of a range of very different but highly articulate dissenters, focusing on their modes of political activism and on the varieties of dissenting response possible, and demonstrating the vitality and integrity of witnesses to a spectrum of post-revolutionary Protestantism. It also seeks, through an exploration of textual culture and poetic texts in particular, to illuminate both the ways in which nonconformists sought to engage with central authorities in Church and State, and the development of nonconformist identities in relation to each other. GEORGE SOUTHCOMBE is Director of the Sarah Lawrence Programme, Wadham College, Oxford.

Few scholars can claim to have shaped the historical study of the long eighteenth century more profoundly than Professor H. T. Dickinson, who, until his retirement in 2006, held the Sir Richard Lodge Chair of British History at the University of Edinburgh. This volume, based on contributions from Professor Dickinson's students, friends and colleagues from around the world, offers a range of perspectives on eighteenth-century Britain and provides a tribute to a remarkable scholarly career.Professor Dickinson's work and career provides the ideal lens through which to take a detailed snapshot of current research in a number of areas. The volume includes contributions from scholars working in intellectual history, political and parliamentary history, ecclesiastical and naval history; discussions of major themes such as Jacobitism, the French Revolution, popular radicalism and conservatism; and essays on prominent individuals in English and Scottish history, including Edmund Burke, Thomas Muir, Thomas Paine and Thomas Spence. The result is a uniquely rich and detailed collection with an impressive breadth of coverage.