18th Century Britain

Eighteenth-century Britain saw the emergence of a new poetic genre, the “work” poem which took various forms of labor as its subject and was often written by laborers themselves. Several of these working class poets found their lives transformed due to the success of their verse (Stephen Duck most famously), but most faded into literary obscurity. However, a substantial body of “work” poems was produced by a diverse group of poets throughout the century, each manifesting divergent concerns and attitudes about the experience of work. This chapter assesses the formal connections uniting this poetic genre, particularly the frequent use of such literary devices as ironic distancing, litotes, and mock-georgic description. Instead of solely classifying “work” poems on the basis of their subject matter, this chapter demonstrates that such poetry (indeed the genre itself) lends itself to sophisticated literary techniques often associated with other poetic genres. In this fashion the full measure of eighteenth-century working class poetry can be evaluated more fairly, particularly by analyzing the formation of a new genre designed expressly by the poets themselves. The chapter ultimately seeks to demonstrate the connectedness, rather than the alienation, of working class poetry to the eighteenth-century British poetic tradition.

Words used to describe the Battle of Culloden have always been written with lurid viscerality, from contemporary reports of the dramatic carnage on the moor to scholarly assessments of its enduring effects, still felt both in Scotland and amongst the global community today. To many, it was a sacred last dance that played out over hallowed ground, featuring fateful manoeuvres and noble sacrifices that conjure poignant physical and emotional reactions for those who still flock to visit the field. Some consider Cùil Lodair to have been the death knell of the Highland clan system, and to others it forged the seal on the permanence of union. 275 years later, the myths associated with Culloden are nearly indistinguishable from what we consider to be the facts. Accordingly, myth-busting by both academic and popular historians has become a full-time occupation in the wake of the interest ignited by the Outlander books and television series. Scottish tourism has enjoyed a massive swell in its coffers thanks to this phenomenon alone; Culloden, in a way, has therefore once again put Scotland back on the map and at the forefront of broader collective thoughts about the nation’s future. The battlefield and visitor centre remains a site of pilgrimage for tourists, re-enactors, annual commemorators, and those members of the global diaspora who have ‘come home’. Pitched hostilities continue to be waged to either build upon or preserve the land that formed the context of the battle. Many know the story of the action and what took place in the years afterward, but why we do we still care about the Battle of Culloden nearly three centuries on? This short talk will offer some thoughts about our memory of historical Jacobitism and why this windswept moorland still means so much to so many today.

This article argues for a revisionist history of women through the lens of anthropological gift theory by analysing how Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova used gifts to sustain her relationships, including a tumultuous friendship with Catherine the Great, and the historical narrative of her life. In 1762, Ekaterina played a key role in the coup that overthrew Peter III and installed his wife on the throne. Catherine II made the princess president of the Russian Academy of Sciences - the first European woman to hold public office. At a time when elite Russians first encountered Western society, Ekaterina played a central role in shaping and promoting Russian intellectual and cultural life. The role that gift-giving played in the princess’s negotiation of her relationships and her construction of her own and Russia’s history has not been considered; this article argues for greater recognition of gift-giving and visual rhetoric in women’s history.

This essay reappraises the origins of French Quakerism based on new archival research conducted on both sides of the Channel. It identifies 34 Quaker missionaries in 17th- and early 18C France, sheds new light on the French reception of Quakerism and suggests possible connections with non-violent, charismatic movements in Languedoc.

Britain and the Mahogany Trade of the Americas in the 18th and 19th Centuries I have often wondered many things about wood. I have looked at pieces of furniture and wondered how tall the tree was that it came from. I have wondered where it was from or if birds or other animals lived among its branches. I have wondered who cut it down, who milled it, who carved it, who owned it, and who used it. Of all the wood I have wondered about, my favorite one to wonder about was mahogany. I have for all of my life been surrounded by antique British furniture. My father began importing English furniture from Liverpool at almost the exact same time I was born nearly thirty years ago, and I have played around, worked and lived with it nearly everyday since. In recent years, I decided that mahogany was my favorite, and I wanted to know more about it. I wanted to know where it grew, why the British loved it so, and why they chose it so often to make their cabinetry and furniture. I have come to learn that Great Britain's dealings in Mahogany are far more interesting and complex than I had previously imagined. Mahogany and Britain is indeed a strange and interesting affair. ​ The topic of Britain and mahogany offers insights into global trade, imperialism, race relations, and the environmental impact we as humans have on the world.

Did women engage in the making of architecture before the nineteenth century? Although most professions requiring specialized knowledge were deemed socially unsuitable for women, women did play active roles in the built environment in Western Europe before the Industrial Age.  Elite and bourgeois women influenced architectural design as patrons and advisors, and women of lesser means were on occasion employed in building-related crafts and construction labor.  Women’s earliest activities as true designers and builders can be linked to the cultural phenomenon of the Renaissance.  The rediscovery of Antiquity was a catalyst that transformed the identity of the architect and opened the traditional building industry to those who were not master builders.  Both men and women began to design and build as artist-architects and as amateurs.  Yet, these women engaged architecture mostly from the margins of the profession.  Nineteenth-century industrialization brought a dynamic change in the nature of work and lifestyles, opening the door for greater numbers of women to work outside the home. The mechanization of the building industry and changing attitudes towards women’s education and work paved the path for women to move slowly from the margins towards the center of specialized knowledge in the craft and profession of architecture in the twentieth century.

Between 1753 and 1836, the institution of marriage in Britain saw transformative change through the introduction of legislation by the State.This dissertation is a reevaluation of the the nature of marriage legislation between 1753 and 1836, and thus the relationship between the institution of marriage and the British state. It underpins the teleological assumption of marriage legislation as 'progressive' in nature, and challenges Lawrence Stone's theory of the rise of the 'compassionate marriage'.

This essay purports that from the 'Clandestine Marriage Act 1753' to 'An Act For Marriages in England', and the 'General Register Act 1836', the Legislature's primary concern for enacting reform remained the orderly inheritance of land and title. To accomplish this, the state brought marriage under its own regulatory authority in 1753, previously a total remit of the Church, with the main objective of reducing the number of illegitimately solemnised marriages, however still legitimate in the eyes of the Church, known as Clandestine Marriages. The recording of life events, 'registers', were gradually 'secularised' and standardised for legislation during this process, to aid this.

The process of change and the infringement upon the Church's historic prerogatives in this period must be seen as a step towards the 'modern information state', with a growing reach into, and over, the lives of its citizens. Greater volumes of increasingly accurate and detailed information was gathered on individuals through register regulation. Traditional records of religious milestone (Christening, funeral) was seen as insufficient and too inaccurate in the eyes of civil lawyers and the expanding government departments (especially the Poor Law Department). Legislation gradually withdrew the prerogative from the Church to civil, professional registrars who would record biological milestones (birth dates, death dates for cause of death) to attain a greater level of accuracy. Foucault helps us understand this gathering of information as 'biopower', fueled by biological information that must be collected by law and can be used by the state to control, or at least manipulate, its citizens.

Overall, through reevaluating the history of marriage, we see the true nature of the change to the institution rooted in inheritance and accuracy of information gathering, not in a quest for a more 'liberal' and 'progressive' institution.

This work analyses the public perception of the role of privateers and their transition to pirates and examines both negative and positive outcomes in various areas like diplomacy, international trade, legal, racial and gender issues. The entire topic is examined through various cases of pirates including Bartholomew Roberts, Sir Henry Morgan, Thomas Tew, William Kid, Jack Rackham, Stede Bonnet, Edward Teach, Samuel Bellamy, Mary Read, Anne Bony or Henry Avery as well as historical records including letters, trials and pamphlets. Further, this essay discusses an interesting development of piracy from state-funded expeditions into utterly illegal activity driven by various reasons. Particularly the transition between legal, semi-legal and illicit separates England and Great Britain (from 1707 onwards) from other colonial powers such as France, Spain or Dutch. Despite the fact that they all issued privateering licenses and therefore they had to face similar problems connected to privateering, the outburst of piracy in the case of England was so dangerous that England (Great Britain) during the late 17th and early 18th century was called a “nation of pirates”. Hence, this work analyses both legal and practical actions against pirates in British colonies and their effectiveness after 1715. The last part of this essay is dedicated to piracy regarding an alternative way of life for disadvantaged social groups in the 17th and 18th century and contemporary negative or positive portrayal of piracy. The role of liberated “Negroe” and “Mullato” slaves is also examined throu

An edition of Goldsmith's description of the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the lives of rural England, formerly based on cottage industry. The desolation and unstoppable influence of capitalism on the countryside is detailed, in what is lost in the entry into the modern world. Edited by Sasha Newborn

Монография составлена из ранее опубликованных автором статей и материалов по истории и методологии исследования российского дворянства конца XVIII — начала XIX века. В книгу вошли результаты более чем двадцати лет работы. Предлагается постановка различных проблем изучения дворянства, case studies из жизни влиятельного клана Воронцовых, сделана попытка соединить государственное служение, личную жизнь и метафизику одного из ярчайших представителей российской аристократии — М.С. Воронцова.

The monograph is composed by the author from already published papers and studies in history and methodology of the Russian nobility at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. The book presents the results of more than twenty years of the author’s research. He suggests interpretations of various problems in nobility studies, of some cases from powerful Vorontsov clan’s life, and attempts to put together outstanding aristocrat M. Vorontsov’s public service, private life and metaphysics.

Adam Smith closes the first chapter to Theory of Moral Sentiments, 'Of Sympathy', with a harmless enough assertion: 'We sympathize even with the dead'.  Death is not a topic that much interests Smith in Theory of Moral Sentiments. With the exception of a few miscellaneous thoughts in the text, the one paragraph Smith devotes to it is the extent of his interest. It is, however, a matter of interest in his Glasgow lectures on jurisprudence. To the extent we wish to observe the rights of the dead, how far may we extend these rights without infringing upon the rights of the living?  Which is the question: what are the demands the dead may make upon the living?

Of all the centuries in Indian history, perhaps the best worked upon and the most delved into is the 18th century. When greater-than-India sized Mughal Empire began to shrink with the demise of its most celebrated expansionist in 1707, there emerged a powerful whirlpool in the midst and depths of the Indian history's what came to be the most crucial period. With mammoth empires being sucked into the vortex of power dynamics, the supremacy of the 'political realm' was challenged to an unprecedented extent. With centuries of endeavors being reduced to exasperated failures and centuries of maneuvers being engineered into 'evangelistic empires', the century became the center of attraction for anyone initiating a study on the last millennium's history. It became a point of intersection in broad continuum of processes hard to elude, let alone miss. Such critical period demands an exhaustive research, especially for a space comprising about 20% of the contemporary world's population. This essay serves as a comprehensive summary of an exhaustive yet inexhaustible debate on the 18th century Indian history that has spanned for almost a century and still continues to linger.

Abstract

Every culture has its own philosophical explanation about the afterlife or about death. All such explanations express death as meaningful and need to be expressive. Grief and other concepts in these expressions can be read tangibly from material culture and intangibly from the peoples of existing cultures. Tombstones and memorial tablets can consider the main material culture of death. The present article discusses the information revealed from the tombstones of Holy Trinity Church of Nuwaraeliya. These records belong to the deceased European residents of 19th the cemetery. All the inscriptions on the tombstones and tablets were recorded and only the unrecorded 29 tombstones are subjected to focus in discussion in special reference to the concepts of the death, grief and afterlife in that society. Also the biblical quotations mentioned on tombs are discussed with reference to the Holy Bible. The genealogy of the families could create by using the interrelations of the tombstones and tablets as well as other sources.

Key words: Tombstones, Inscriptions, Death, Christianity

Cet article se veut un outil précis et fouillé à l’usage des chercheurs souhaitant approfondir le domaine de la petite guerre et des troupes légères (mise à jour, 2005).
Depuis un article d’André Martel paru dans la « Revue Historique » en 1971, la communauté des historiens militaires en France n’a cessé périodiquement de souligner jusqu’à nos jours – avec des approches actualisées – le renouveau de cette histoire militaire. L’intérêt pour la petite guerre s’inscrit dans ce mouvement. Il a été porté aussi par la réalité de beaucoup des conflits d’aujourd’hui, dits « de basse intensité », dans lesquels la tactique des troupes légères d’autrefois, alternative à la bataille, trouve son avatar contemporain. L’article attire d’abord l’attention sur la plus ou moins grande pertinence de l’emploi de l’expression de « petite guerre » dans l’historiographie, en français, en allemand et en anglais. Il procède ensuite à la généalogie de l’étude de la petite guerre à l’époque moderne (XVIe - XVIIIe siècles), en France et dans les mondes anglo-saxon et germanique. Il pointe enfin le problème du cloisonnement des travaux, entre les périodes historiques comme d’un pays à l’autre.

"Recent claims that the eighteenth-century men-midwives William Smellie and William Hunter had women murdered to order, to provide the illustrations for their impressive atlases of obstetrics, raise fresh questions about how medical history is generated, presented and evaluated in the media and, in particular, on the internet. This paper traces the generation and subsequent reception of what, for some people, has now become a ‘historical fact’, in order to illustrate how attempts by medical historians to engage with policy and with the public exist alongside a shift towards the deprofessionalisation of history.
The response to Shelton's comments on this can be found on http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/hkr168?
ijkey=5MpiXPxwCbUcNrG&keytype=ref

The Order del Toboso was a Jacobite social order. In this chapter the author argues that they remained committed Jacobites, but adopted a pragmatic approach and actively discouraged their family and friends from losing all in rash adventures - attempts to restore the House of Stuart being equated to Tilting at Windmills.

This paper examines the relationship between the aesthetic thought of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele and early modern virtuoso culture. It argues that both Addison and Steele did not reject virtuoso culture so much as to attempt to reform and redefine it. It is observed that Addison in particular wrote a virtuoso travel narrative in his Remarks on Italy as well as contributing to the discourse on antiquarian medal-collecting. In their writings on art and connoisseurship in the Tatler and Spectator essays, both Addison and Steele can be understood as defenders of a neoclassical aesthetic that rejected and ridiculed a supposedly indiscriminate virtuoso aesthetic of curiosity. But the essays are best understood as part of an important moment of transition in which an early enlightenment notion of taste emerged from a template established by baroque virtuosity rather than as a complete rejection of virtuoso culture.

KEYWORDS Addison, Joseph; Steele, Richard; virtuoso; antiquarianism; connoisseur; aesthetics

This article focuses on the critical reception of Robert Burns from 1796 to 1828. It explores how the concept of genius influenced the perception of Burns as it was represented by critics and editors throughout the time period. Testimony of Burns’s ‘genius’ in the early nineteenth century was entirely in line with critical responses to the poet’s works beginning in 1786. This essay provides a survey of these responses, revealing a consistent pattern of critical reception of Burns and his body of work. The primary critical approach to Burns’s work involved the application of ‘genius’ theory; the continuum of critical responses demonstrates the fluid nature of this concept throughout the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth centuries. However, attention to the poet’s reception history also shows that while the concept underwent significant moderation as an aesthetic category, its association with moral failings was almost uniformly expressed by Burns’s critics. The ties between genius and biography, particularly in Burns’s case, became increasingly knotted as later commentators attempted to understand the poet’s life and works. This essay demonstrates that the process of myth-building and moralizing surrounding Burns continued unabated through the nineteenth century, particularly as critics assayed the poet’s nationalist iconicity while attempting to diminish the relevance of moral failings wrought by his ‘genius’. Burns’s fame still highlights this tension between his undeniable poetic gifts and his messy personal life, between his poetic aspirations and his complicated desires.

Post-medieval crypts have been overlooked as resources worthy of study; their investigation has only recently been recognised as important within the wider context of funerary research and archaeology. This thesis examined the coffins and coronets within one of two Tufton dynastic crypts beneath St Margaret’s Church in Rainham, Kent.
Photographic analysis of 19 coffins which date between 1729-1849 and three associated funerary coronets was conducted. This evaluation was completed remotely due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Ten of the 19 coffins were highly decorated and represent the ‘Golden Age’ of coffin manufacture. Coffins and coronets were documented in detail and their condition evaluated. Decorative coffin fittings were identified by comparing them to previously published examples, and information from nameplates was utilised to identify coffin occupants.
This analysis resulted in the identification of the occupants of 11 of 19 coffins representing five generations of the Tufton family including three of the 11 Earls of Thanet. A partial order of interment was elucidated using archival data and dates of death from coffin breastplates. The three coronets were documented and found to be representations of Earl’s coronets created specifically for funeral ceremonies. The analysis of coffin fittings resulted in the identification of 13 newly recorded motifs, 6 new upholstery pin patterns, and refined the dating for three previously recorded fittings and five previously recorded upholstery pin patterns. The ongoing refinement of fitting and pin pattern date ranges will assist in future crypt recording projects and could eventually lead to a seriation of fittings and pin designs.

This paper explores the evolution of the modern political cartoon, from the earliest days of print culture, through five nominal 'centuries' of form: the “Long Sixteenth Century” of “flysheets” & pamphlets; the Eighteenth Century of stand-alone satirical prints; the Nineteenth Century of serio-comic weeklies; the Twentieth Century of mass-circulation daily newspapers; and the Twenty-First Century of webcomics. Although focused on the form and medium in which cartoons appeared, the paper seeks to account for change via a number of different factors (including physical; generational; cultural; socio-economic; technological; political; aesthetic; and legal) that have shaped the political cartoon over time. This preliminary discussion is one facet of a broader project: to account for the global history of the political cartoon.

Publisher's summary

The English economy underwent profound changes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, yet the worldly affairs of ordinary people continued to be shaped as much by traditional ideals and moral codes as by material conditions. This book explores the economic implications of many of the era’s key concepts, including Christian stewardship, divine providence, patriarchal power, paternal duty, local community, and collective identity. Brodie Waddell draws on a wide range of contemporary sources – from ballads and pamphlets to pauper petitions and guild regulations – to show that such ideas pervaded every aspect of social and economic relations during this crucial period. As a result, the book reveals the inadequacy of many previous discussions of English economic life, which have tended to ignore or dismiss the influence of cultural factors. Indeed, Waddell argues that popular beliefs about divine will, social duty and communal bonds remained the frame through which most people viewed vital ‘earthly’ concerns such as food marketing, labour relations, trade policy, poor relief, and many others. Ultimately, he demonstrates both the vibrancy and the diversity of the ‘moral economies’ of the period. This analysis of later Stuart economic culture can thus contribute significantly to our understanding of early modern society.

Accounts of Robert Burns's reading are well-documented in his correspondence, where he frequently attests to his enjoyment of three books in particular: John Moore's Zeluco and Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling and The Man of the World. These three Scottish novels recount the lives of vividly-imagined men whose actions affect those around them in dramatic fashion. Zeluco lies, deceives, and ultimately murders his lovers and family; the “Man of the World” Sindall behaves similarly, threatening the well-being of an innocent, virtuous family. At the other end of the spectrum, Harley (the lead of The Man of Feeling) weeps and emotes in vignette-like encounters with various scenes of suffering. Each of these characters holds clues to the exceedingly popular model of masculinity represented by the writing and reputation of Robert Burns. This essay examines the templates of masculinity embodied by Zeluco, Sindall, and Harley, in order to determine how and why they commanded such an influence on Burns's imagination. The characters' relation to late eighteenth-century ideals of politeness is also examined, in addition to the novels’ engagement with sentimental discourse. The essay offers an analysis of the combined influences of these three "men of feeling" on Burns, his writing, and his posthumous reputation.

This is a revision of earlier (2009) paper ‘In Matthew Boulton’s orbit: Joseph Barney of Wolverhampton’. It presents the life, collaboration with Matthew Boulton's Soho factory and other artistic achievements of 18th-19th centuries painter and engraver Joseph Barney's of Wolverhampton. In comparison with the previous 2010 research, many new facts have been added and some existing attributions and data revised.

ABSTRACT in English: "‘Partisan warfare’, ‘war in detachment’: the ‘petite guerre’ seen from England (18th century)"
The article aims to measure and to explain the gradual realisation, in Great Britain during the 18th century, of the importance of the "petite guerre" or the "partisan warfare" in military thinking (later that elsewhere in Europe). It shows then the creation and the increase in numbers of British light troops in the course of this century, the Government's policy with regard to them, and the awareness of the British for the "petite guerre" in the field, through a new case study regarding the War of Austrian Succession.

It was only in 1770 that a British author, Stevenson, wrote and published for the first time a treatise on the "petite guerre". Indeed, the British remained for some time on the sidelines of the stream of publications in Europe on this subject. Some historians are asserting that British officers in the 18th century didn't really care about refining their military knowledge. The researches of J. Houlding allow nuancing this statement. The fact remains that a prevailing tactical routine was real, with a tendency in military treatises to instruct only parade and garrison duties.

The article explores the context that brought the real – albeit late – interest expressed by English officers for the "petite guerre" in the years 1760-1770. It should be noted that there have been more translations of foreign books than real national works. 

More important than it seems is the question of the translation – or rather the non-existence of any translation! – of the wording for the "petite guerre" in English during the 18th century ; and, therefore, the difficulty for British historians of the 20th century to suggest an adequate wording in order to express a reality which was only translated with circumlocutions in the 18th century... The article points out the shortcomings of military vocabulary in the English language during the 18th century (recognized at the time), makes an inventory of the authors' choices to express the reality of the "petite guerre", as well as the solutions considered by today's historians. A consequence of this underestimated question is the confusion often remaining nowadays between the "petite guerre" in singular and the small wars in plural (that is, between the tactic of irregular warfare and the small wars in the sense used by Charles Edward Callwell).

Numerous studies have been written within the historiography in English language about the American War of Independence and about the tactic which it used; because civil wars make a bigger mark on the national consciousness than other types of conflicts, especially in the case of an independence war, leading to the birth of a new state! However, contrary to what one might think accordingly, the tactic of "guerrilla" in the American War of Independence only had later an influence of British strategic thinking. To be sure, a theoretician like Emmerich (a Hessian officer who fought with the British in this conflict, and who cites it as an example in his treatise of the "petite guerre" in 1789) has the merit, with his fellow countryman Ewald, of having understood the role that would have from now on the civilian populations and the ideological motivations in conflicts.

However, on one hand real light troops existed in the British army well before the American War of Independence, even if their inception came later than for the main European neighbours. On the other hand, those troops were unfortunately disbanded every time peace was made, and this didn't help the perpetuation of a certain know-how regarding an indirect style of operations. The first real regiment of light troops, the Light Dragoons, was raised in 1745 in order to fight the Jacobite rising. Other were raised on this model, always temporary, on the occasion of the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and then of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).

The article concludes with a new case study (to be continued) which presents the "petite guerre" understood and conducted by the British during the campaigns in Flanders of the War of Austrian Succession, and especially in 1747. This case study focuses on a period and on a theatre of operation still unexplored regarding this aspect of the art of war, as the British saw and experienced it. We can see that some of their generals didn't wait for the conflicts of the second half of the century and for the American theatre of operation to clearly understand the role of the "petite guerre". Beside some military accounts of British authors published after the conflict, this case study is based mainly on archives still waiting to be used on this subject : the military papers of the Duke of Cumberland, the English commander in chief of the Allies opposed to the French in 1747.

This is a book of collected first-hand source material exploring Scotland's place within its union with England. The idea was to try to find those who were in favour of the union but felt they had a duty to make it a more equal union by solving varying grievances the population had from the time of its signing. There are many misconceptions these days with regards the Treaty of Union Scotland entered into with England in 1707. There’s a pervading belief of Scotland, the country, ceasing to exist in place of the country of Great Britain. There are also those who believe our monarch is only such due to this treaty. In both of these examples the falsehood becomes more evident when you exchange Scotland with England and claim the same. The easiest go-to for the information was the British press for articles, op-eds and correspondence. And, jings, did they deliver! From issues of political apathy in the first half-century post-union, calls for a home militia, to comparisons with Ireland after their entering the union in 1801. Over-taxation, under-funding, and centralisation are recurring issues creating a pervasive feeling of unfairness in how each country was individually treated within the unions. For the most part, every believer in the union, had a grievance of some kind; whether it was in Scotland’s under-representation in Westminster, the paying of England’s debts, or attempts at Centralisation both by the dissolution of our national institutions, supposedly protected by the treaty, and the insistence Britain/British could be just as easily replaced with England/English. There was one main article in particular that seemed to grab people's attention, however, which I titled the 'Financial Cost to Scotland of the Union.' It's written by Harry Gow and lays out the figures in black and white leading us to believe nothing much has changed since it was written in 1891. The vast majority of this compilation of articles is penned by authors in favour of the British union, from varying newspapers across mainland Britain and Ireland, in case anyone was wondering about bias on this subject.

On September 7, 1714 Claude Hector de Villars and Prince Eugen of Savoy signed a peace contract in the town of Baden in Switzerland. It's aim was to confirm the contracts of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714) that had put an end to the war of the Spanish succession. According to his family's tradition, Caspar Joseph Dorer was a member of the town council. At the time of the Baden peace conference he served as «Stadtfähnrich» and was responsible for the the town's defense in times of war. In his «Diarum» he meticulously remembered the daily protocol, the splendid lodgings and meals offered to the foreign war heroes, princes and ambassadors gathering in Baden, as well as the entertainment of their entourage from the point of view of a well instructed eyewitness. - Caspar Joseph Dorer's Diary of the Peace Congress of Baden (1714). Introduction and annotated edition by Barbara Schmid. – Reviews: Ernst Baumeler: Verhandeln und Dinieren für den Frieden. Die Stadt Baden als Kulisse für diplomatisch-höfischen Glanz aus der Sicht eines zeitgenössischen Beobachters, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 7. Oktober 2014, Nr. 232, S. 18 (-> NZZ Archiv); Manuel Bühlmann: Ein Badener schaute Europas Mächtigen genau auf die Finger, in: Aargauer Zeitung, 6.9.2014 (-> File); Mischa Christen: Ein Badener schaute Europas Mächtigen auf die Finger, in: Badener Tablatt, 6.9.2014 (-> File)

This published article aims to be an accurate and detailed tool for the researchers who want to study the subject of the “petite guerre” and the light troops (update 2005).

Since the historian André Martel published in 1971 his article in the “Revue Historique” (France), the military historians in France regularly underscored until nowadays the renewal of military history – with updated approaches. The interest for the “petite guerre” is part of this movement. Additionally, the interest for the “petite guerre” has been supported by the reality of many conflicts today, which are told “low intensity conflicts”. The tactic of light troops of olden times, which filled the theatre of operations between the battles, finds here its contemporary transformation. The present article draws attention first upon the use of the terms of “petite guerre” in the French, German and British historiography, and its relevance, or not. Second, the article details the history of the study of the “petite guerre” of the early modern times (16th – 18th centuries) in France, in Germany and in the Anglo-Saxon world. Finally, it points out the problem of the compartmentalisation of the researchers’ works, both between the historical periods and between the different countries.

This essay presents a detailed analysis of the works of three labouring-class poets who wrote in the "shadow" of Robert Burns: John Lapraik, David Sillar, and Janet Little. It assesses the influence of Burns upon their literary productions , finding that the "shadow" of Burns tended to diminish the works and reputations of his fellow labouring-class poets during this period.

Like its famous predecessor, Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders is a story of survival. But instead of being shipwrecked on an uninhabited island ‘near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque’, the novel’s protagonist arguably has a more insurmountable problem, that of being born a poor orphan girl in 17th century England. As Defoe clearly understood, dealing with pirates, cannibals and wolves was a piece of cake compared to the lot of the working-class woman. And like Crusoe, Moll does survive and ultimately prosper, living to tell her bawdy tale, with every act of ‘sin’ and ‘wickedness’ necessary to ward off starvation proudly recounted for the sake of ‘moral instruction, caution, warning, and improvement to every reader.’ Although notionally self-explanatory, the exact nature of this ‘moral instruction’ remains unclear. As Virginia Woolf suggested in The Common Reader, Defoe probably didn’t know what it was either, even if he thought he did.

The novel’s full title and lengthy subtitle gives a flavour of the whole, much as book jacket copy does today, with an emphasis on the sensational:

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and dies a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums…

The formula here is that of the Newgate Calendar – chapbook accounts and usually counterfeit confessions of notorious criminals, luridly described but then sweetened by a perfunctory concluding moral message, usually that crime did not pay and that the felon repented of his or her many sins on the steps of the gallows. Newgate Calendars always sold well, and even in the unlikely event that the moral was genuinely meant by the author, it hid the salacious appeal of the main body of the narrative with all the conviction of a negligée. Defoe was no stranger to Newgate biographies, and wrote several himself, most notably The True and Genuine Account of The Life and Actions of The Late Jonathan Wild, Not made up of fiction and fable, but taken from his own mouth, and collected from papers of his own writing, A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, etc. of John Sheppard, and The History of the remarkable Life of John Sheppard, containing A particular account of his many Robberies and Escapes. There are even stories of Defoe the journalist shoving ‘confessions’ into the hands of the bemused and terrified condemned at Tyburn to be retrieved after the execution and passed off as real, and like any good researcher, he spent months interviewing prisoners in Newgate before writing Moll Flanders. Some say she is based on Moll King, a transported London pickpocket and one of Jonathan Wild’s crew, but she is much more interesting than that, being one of those literary characters that come completely to life on the page and end up slipping the leash of their authors. As any novelist will attest, you know you’ve nailed a character when they start telling you their story.

ABSTRACT in English (the book is written in French):
This book presents a thorough analysis and a case study upon the "petite guerre" in the 18th century Europe - tactical and operational levels dealt with, as also relations between war and society (with a substantial historical reminder, in a large chapter exclusively devoted to the 17th century).

The “petite guerre“ was a type of warfare consisting in skirmishes and ambushes which, next to the sieges and battles, filled the theatre of operations during the conventional wars between princes. The locution "petite guerre" with this meaning was always used in the singular, and has to be used so today. The first treatises on the art of the “petite guerre” were published in France, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. The locution “petite guerre” wasn’t translated into English in the eighteenth century, even in treatises published in Great Britain or America (on the contrary, it was translated into German).

Next to the case study of the Flanders during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the book makes an analysis of the thoughts on the “petite guerre” throughout the eighteenth century, in France and in the most important countries of Europe. A special chapter is devoted to the thoughts in Great Britain throughout the 18th century, and to the case study of the actions of British light troops in Flanders (example of 1747), because this topic has not been dealt with before - On the contrary, one book already dealt with the case study of Austria's and another, with the case study of Prussia's use of the "petite guerre" in the eighteenth century.

Besides the tactical level, the book shows how the use of the "petite guerre" was necessary to contribute to the victory in a military campaign at the operational level. In Flanders between 1745 and 1748, the Marshall of Saxe (commander of the French Army) and the Allies (Austrian, British and Dutch armies and their commanders) understood the advantage and importance of the "petite guerre" at this level. A case study shows in detail how the "petite guerre" strongly contributed to the main aims of the French army in August 1746.

However, the topic of the book goes beyond the scope of a tactical and operational study. By showing the impact of the “petite guerre” on civilians and on the activity of the provincial administration, by analyzing the French government policy towards light troops (the light troops were the specialists of the “petite guerre”), by approaching the opinions of the Parisian society (and of the elite as a whole) towards such military tactic and the troops specializing in it, what is at stake is also the possibility to grasp the ideas and sensitivity of society towards the “petite guerre”. This work is thus a contribution to a larger study ‒ that of an era's mentalities towards military issues.

The conclusion of the book offers the beginning of an analysis of the transformations in the use of the “petite guerre” during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

This article attributes the relative lack of attention to the ‘public sphere’ in Geoffrey Holmes's work to the pervasive influence of Lewis Namier and the Namierite conception of political history. Holmes's British Politics can be understood as a product of what might be called the revisionist's dilemma. Because the main thrust of the argument of this work was to challenge the Namierite interpretation of the structure of politics in Anne's reign, Holmes could not fail but to replicate the structures of the original Namierite paradigm. Nevertheless, Holmes's demolition of the Namierite view of Augustan politics also opened up new possibilities for further research; it ultimately widened our understanding of the ‘political’ and it prepared the ground for the remarkable interdisciplinary dialogue between literary historians, intellectual historians, and political historians.

The article concludes with a discussion of how Holmes's successors began to build on his work in ways that can help explain why the Habermasian public sphere paradigm emerged to the foreground of current scholarship in a field where it had been ignored for three decades. Historians are now beginning to build a detailed post-Habermasian understanding of the ways in which the public sphere affected the structures of politics in later Stuart Britain. Work along these lines may well finally help explain the transformation of British politics from an age of Stuart revolutions to the age of Hanoverian oligarchy.