Eighteenth-century England was a place of enlightenment and revolution: new ideas abounded in science, politics, transportation, commerce, religion, and the arts. But even as England propelled itself into the future, it was preoccupied with notions of its past. Jeremy Black considers the interaction of history with knowledge and culture in eighteenth-century England and shows how this engagement with the past influenced English historical writing. The past was used as a tool to illustrate the contemporary religious, social, and political debates that shaped the revolutionary advances of the era. Black reveals this "present-centered" historical writing to be so valued and influential in the eighteenth-century that its importance is greatly underappreciated in current considerations of the period. In his customarily vivid and sweeping approach, Black takes readers from print shop to church pew, courtroom to painter's studio to show how historical writing influenced the era, which in turn gave birth to the modern world.

About the Author

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is author of many books, including Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century; Clio's Battles: Historiography in Practice; War and Technology; and Geographies of an Imperial Power: The British World, 1688-1815. Black is a recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize of the Society for Military History.

Reviews

Jeremy Black's Charting the Past is a useful book....For someone new to the field, wishing a guide through the immense thickets of historical writing and its assorted contexts, Black has provided a good start, and fodder for investigation of some of the more obscure writers he usefully brings to light.

-- Daniel Woolf * H-Net.org *

Charting the Past is an enjoyable and informative read that enriches an understanding of eighteenth-century England and serves as a useful primer for further study and research.

* Journal of British Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253037763
Author Jeremy Black
Format Hardback
Page Count 298
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press