
Bolingbroke and His Circle
The Politics of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole
Isaac Kramnick(Author)
Cornell University Press
Published on 19. May 1992
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-0-8014-8001-0 (ISBN)
Description
"Behind this study lie two questions. Why is Bolingbroke, known primarily as a rationalist philosopher of the Enlightenment, so worshipped by English conservatives who are themselves, since Burke, so set against what the Enlightenment represents in political, social, and religious thought? The second question relates to Bolingbroke's public life. How does one explain the intense animosity between Bolingbroke and Walpole which provides the energy for English political life between 1725 and 1740? Is it mere vindictiveness, ambition, jealousy, or the inevitable reflex of the 'outsider' against the 'insider'? Or is it, as the late Victorian writers thought, their falling out at Eton which forever fated them to be protagonists?"-from the Preface.
Reviews / Votes
Examining the acrimonious political debte during the administration of Walpole from the perspective of its social context, [Kramnick] focuses directly upon the political culture of Augustan Britain. As the title implies, the volume is chiefly concerned with analyzing the thought and behavior of Bolingbroke and his supporters, especially Swift, Pope, Gay, and Lyttleton. But it devotes almost equal space to an explication of the ideas of both Bolingbroke's opponents... and ambivalent Commonwealthmen... who shared many of Bolingbroke's impulses but whose thought veered off in genuinely radical directions. The result is the most comprehensive and persuasive general study thus far published of early eighteenth-century British political thought.- Jack P. Greene (William and Mary Quarterly) A perceptive and learned contribution to the understanding of English eighteenth-century thought and of the role in it of enigmatic Viscount Bolingbroke. No one concerned with the political theories of Augustan England can afford to ignore Kramnick's book.
(Political Science Quarterly) An illuminating analysis of Bolingbroke's political writings [and] a contribution of the first importance to eighteenth-century studies.
(American Historical Review) An excellent book-erudite, penetrating, and extremely well-written.
(American Political Science Review)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
907 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8014-8001-0 (9780801480010)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Isaac Kramnick is Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government at Cornell University.