This book is the first thorough account of the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753, a notorious but little-understood episode in English history. The author discusses the position of the Jews in the mid-eighteenth century and explains why they sought and obtained passage of the bill, which was opposed with a well-organized propaganda campaign.

Periodicals were an essential medium during eighteenth-century Enlightenment. The era’s growing number of newspapers and journals made possible a fast and vast dissemination of ideas and debates. Journals were a particularly important means of transmitting ideas, genres, texts, and pieces of information from country to country, from centre to periphery, and from press to subscribers. These journals became agents of change by mediating the increasingly profound and widespread urge to write and read and to engage in political debate. This volume, edited by Ellen Krefting, Aina Nøding and Mona Ringvej, presents contributions that explore this media revolution from a Northern perspective. The chapters throw new light on the reception of Enlightenment ideas and practices in Denmark–Norway, Sweden–Finland, and beyond. Taken together, they make a strong case for the transnational and revolutionary character of the Enlightenment as a whole.

This challenging and original study examines the most important aspects of popular political culture in eighteenth-century Britain. The first part explores the way the British people could influence existing political institutions or could exploit their existing powers, by looking at the role of the people in parliamentary elections, in a wide range of pressure groups, in their local urban communities, and in popular demonstrations. The second part shows how the British people became increasingly politicised during the eighteenth century and how they tried to shape or defend their political world.

Propaganda 1776 reframes the culture of the U.S. Revolution and early Republic, revealing it to be rooted in a vast network of propaganda. Truth, clarity, and honesty were declared virtues of the period - but rumors, falsehoods, forgeries, and unauthorized publication were no less the life's blood of liberty. Looking at famous patriots like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine; the playwright Mary Otis Warren; and the poet Philip Freneau, Castronovo provides various anecdotes that demonstrate the ways propaganda was - contrary to our instinctual understanding - fundamental to democracy rather than antithetical to it. By focusing on the persons and methods involved in Revolutionary communications, Propaganda 1776 both reconsiders the role that print culture plays in historical transformation and reexamines the widely relevant issue of how information circulates in a democracy.

First published in 1987, this is a comprehensive analysis of the rise of the British Press in the eighteenth century, as a component of the understanding of eighteenth century political and social history. Professor Black considers the reasons for the growth of the "print culture" and the relations of newspapers to magazines and pamphlets; the mechanics of circulation; and chronological developments. Extensively illustrated with quotations from newspapers of the time, the book is a lively as well as original and informative treatment of a topic that must remain of first importance for the literate historian.

Examines how and why marriage plots became the English novel's most popular form in the eighteenth century. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century English literature and culture as well as feminist literary history.

Enormously rich and wide-ranging, The Routledge Companion to Britain in the Eighteenth Century brings together, in one handy reference, a wide range of essential information on the major aspects of eighteenth century British history. The information included is chronological, statistical, tabular and bibliographical, and the book begins with the eighteenth century political system before going on to cover foreign affairs and the empire, the major military and naval campaigns, law and order, religion, economic and financial advances, and social and cultural history. Key features of this user-friendly volume include: wide-ranging political chronologies major wars and rebellions key treaties and their terms chronologies of religious events approximately 500 biographies of leading figures essential data on population, output and trade a detailed glossary of terms a comprehensive cultural and intellectual chronology set out in tabular form a uniquely detailed and comprehensive topic bibliography. All those studying or teaching eighteenth century British history will find this concise volume an indispensable resource for use and reference.

Inspired by debates among political scientists over the strength and depth of the pre-modern roots of nationalism, this study attempts to gauge the status of ethnic identities in an era whose dominant loyalties and modes of political argument were confessional, institutional and juridical. Colin Kidd's point of departure is the widely shared orthodox belief that the whole world had been peopled by the offspring of Noah. In addition, Kidd probes inconsistencies in national myths of origin and ancient constitutional claims, and considers points of contact which existed in the early modern era between ethnic identities which are now viewed as antithetical, including those of Celts and Saxons. He also argues that Gothicism qualified the notorious Francophobia of eighteenth-century Britons. A wide-ranging example of the new British history, this study draws upon evidence from England, Scotland, Ireland and America, while remaining alert to European comparisons and influences.