First published 1998
Mackie assembles writings from The Tatler and The Spectator, the periodicals that shaped public discourse between 1709 and 1714. She pairs essays by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele with supporting documents that illuminate the social world these publications inhabited. The collection draws from competing periodicals like The Guardian, The London Spy, and The Female Tatler, alongside contemporary advertisements and writings by Defoe, Ward, Gay, Mandeville, Pope, and Swift. Mackie organizes these materials around four central themes: the emerging marketplace of public opinion, the mechanics of commerce and finance, the creation of cultural taste, and the construction of gender roles. Readers gain access to the voices that defined eighteenth-century London's relationship between literature, commerce, and social identity.
Genres: history, business, economics, non-fiction, academic, cultural-studies
Vibes: academic, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-non-fiction, social-commentary
Setting: England, London
Period: 18th Century
617 pages · Paperback · Bedford/St. Martin's