by Leo Damrosch
First published 1989
Leo Damrosch examines Britain's most influential eighteenth-century writers, arguing that their dominance in philosophy, history, and political debate was deliberate. Writers like David Hume and Samuel Johnson recognized that cultural stories needed anchoring in reality beyond mere text. Their conservative politics, often overlooked today, formed a calculated response to an era where shared meaning depended on consensus under constant threat. Damrosch reveals unexpected connections between figures typically seen as opponents. He shows how Hume and Johnson's similar responses to their age's challenges anticipated twentieth-century pragmatist philosophy. The study traces relationships between fiction and reality in works by James Boswell, Edward Gibbon, Gilbert White, Edmund Burke, and William Godwin. This interdisciplinary analysis combines literary, philosophical, and cultural criticism to serve both academic scholars and general readers curious about intellectual history.
Genres: history, literary-criticism, biography-memoir, academic, cultural-studies, american-history
Vibes: academic, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-figures, intellectual-discourse
Setting: Britain
Period: 18th-century
272 pages · Paperback · University of Wisconsin Press