Reading History in Britain and America, c.1750–c.1840
eBook - PDF

Reading History in Britain and America, c.1750–c.1840

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Reading History in Britain and America, c.1750–c.1840

About this book

The period between c.1750 and c.1840 is popularly known for the rise of the novel, yet historical works by Enlightenment writers, including David Hume, Edward Gibbon and William Robertson, were some of its most commercially successful books. Moving beyond the range of previous studies that have sought to explain this success by focussing on publishers, writers and their ideas, Mark Towsey's study is the first to focus on the reading audiences themselves. Drawing on a variety of sources including marginalia, letters, diaries and commonplace books, this lively book reveals why histories were so widely read, and shows how they were used by readers across the English-speaking world to make sense of social upheaval at home and revolution abroad. In doing so, it marks a major addition to the history of reading, shedding fascinating new light on how readers interpreted books in the past.

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Yes, you can access Reading History in Britain and America, c.1750–c.1840 by Mark Towsey in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & English Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-title page
  3. Title page
  4. Copyright page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. List of Abbreviations
  9. Introduction: ‘History Now Is the Favourite Reading’
  10. Chapter 1 History and the Life Cycle of the Reader
  11. Chapter 2 Sceptical Historiography and the Problem of Infidelity
  12. Chapter 3 Contesting Constitutional History
  13. Chapter 4 A Nation United?: Histories of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
  14. Chapter 5 Rewriting the American Nation
  15. Chapter 6 Historical Information and the Management of Empire
  16. Conclusion
  17. Bibliography
  18. Index