DOCSLIB.ORG

'Spectacles Within Doors': Panoramas of London in the 1790S Ellis, M

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
'Spectacles Within Doors': Panoramas of London in the 1790S Ellis, M View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Queen Mary Research Online 'Spectacles within doors': panoramas of London in the 1790s Ellis, M For additional information about this publication click this link. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/3559 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] August 26, 2008 Time: 09:44am rom024.tex Markman Ellis ‘Spectacles within doors’: Panoramas of London in the 1790s ‘The interest of the panorama is in seeing the increasingly structured by this debate as a true city – the city indoors’. socially-stratified opposition. Wordsworth’s Walter Benjamin, Arcades Project response to the panorama in The Prelude, (1999), 532. although probably based on an experience of In his ramble around London in Book Seven of the exhibition, also reflects his engagement The Prelude (1805), Wordsworth’s poet with the written discourse of the panorama proposes to ‘let us view [...]theSpectacles/ media event. Within doors’. His key example is the Although the panorama dates from the panorama: late-eighteenth century, its modern historiography begins in the late 1960s, when a mimic sights that ape series of publications and research projects first The absolute presence of reality, subjected it to scholarly scrutiny. Pioneering Expressing, as in mirror, sea and land, work by Hubert Pragnell, Scott Wilcox, Richard 1 And what earth is, and what she has to show. Altick and Stephan Oettermann,2 culminated in The panorama is a large-scale landscape Ralph Hyde’s innovative Barbican Art Gallery painting depicting a circular 360 degree view exhibition and catalogue Panoramania! in exhibited under special conditions on the inside 1988.3 This archival work coincided with the surface of a dedicated cylindrical exhibition ‘rediscovery’, preservation and restoration of space. The panorama was invented in surviving panoramas, such as the Panorama Edinburgh in 1787, and, as this essay explores, Mesdag in The Hague, Netherlands.4 Although brought to completion in London in the period these early studies of the panorama emerged 1789–94. As an event, the panorama was not from outside the discipline of art history, they only a meticulously staged exhibition of a aroused considerable interest amongst painting, but also a carefully orchestrated practitioners of the New Art History in the media event comprising advertisements, patent 1980s, especially in the emergent discipline of grants, critical commentary and satire. In this ‘visual culture’.5 In this context, the panorama debate, the panorama was the subject of two has been seen as the paradigmatic point of critical discourses, one a language drawn from origin for the rise of mass entertainment, the art connoisseurship and the science of optics, prototype for a proliferating series of exhibition and the other, from the rhetoric of popular spectacles (cosmoramas, dioramas, cycloramas, spectacle. Although these two discourses cohere myrioramas, moving panoramas, around the same painted exhibition, they are phenakistiscopes) that inform the emergence of August 26, 2008 Time: 09:44am rom024.tex 134 Romanticism the new visual media in the nineteenth century applied for a patent for the panorama: his (daguerrotype, the photograph, the stereotype, ‘invention, called La nature à coup d’œil’,’ for and the cinema). A key early statement of the representing‘naturalobjects[...]orfancy’,was hypothesis was indicated in Walter Benjamin’s designed ‘so as to make observers, on whatever discussion of the panoramas of mid-nineteenth situation he may wish they should imagine century Paris in The Arcades Project, which themselves, feel as if really on the very spot’. though written between 1927 and 1940, was Written before any such painting had been unknown until first published in German in executed, the patent was somewhat evasive 1982 (and not translated into English until about the painted object it describes. It was 1999).6 The visual culture reading understands intended, he said, ‘by drawing and painting’ the panorama as a paradigm for modern mass entertainment both as a technical achievement to perfect an entire view of any country or (‘a form of reputedly stunning illusionism that situation, as it appears to an observer turning approximated both cinema’s visual field and quite round; to produce which effect, the time/space continuum’), but also as a watershed painter or drawer must fix his station, and event in social history (‘a popular medium delineate correctly and connectedly every enjoyed by mass audiences’).7 The general arc object which presents itself to his view as he of this argument – that panoramas lay the turns round, concluding his drawing by a groundwork for photography and cinema – has connection with where he began.11 been repeated and adumbrated by numerous scholars and theorists of visual culture.8 The patent further stipulated how the painting Nonetheless, the consistent focus of this was to be exhibited: it required a circular research is teleological, and as such, it obscures building lit from above, with the observer’s the recalcitrant historical complexity that movement restricted by an ‘enclosure’, so that attended the panorama’s emergence before its his or her view of both the upper and lower nineteenth century ascendancy. This essay, by edge of the painting was obscured by an contrast, focuses on the panorama in London in ‘interception’ (a low railing), and with entry to its first five years (1789–1794), and is the enclosure from below, so as not to ‘disturb’ structured around contemporary responses to the cylindrical perspectival plane. The patent the first three panorama paintings exhibited in itself was first published in a scientific journal the environs of Leicester-Square.9 The primary in 1796, after the media event described in this research materials, given that the panoramas essay. themselves have not survived, are Barker’s experimental view of Edinburgh contemporary reports of viewers’ experiences, from Calton Hill, executed in distemper, was printed critical remarks, visual orientation keys, first exhibited in temporary accommodation in commemorative prints, and the large number of Edinburgh in 1787. Barker commented in a printed advertisements in handbills and newspaper advertisement in 24 March 1788 newspapers written by diverse, sometimes that mere description ‘is inadequate to impress anonymous, critics, satirists and poets, a just idea of the performance, which, from the Wordsworth included.10 entire novelty of the thought, is not perfectly understood until seen.’12 The small scale of the painting (not much more than a half circle), Edinburgh in London and the inadequate exhibition spaces, did not On 19 June 1787 Robert Barker (1739–1806), show the idea to its full advantage. Having an Anglo-Irish painter working in Edinburgh, secured the patent, and the interest of Scottish August 26, 2008 Time: 09:44am rom024.tex ‘Spectacles within doors’: Panoramas of London in the 1790s 135 investors, Barker decided that the much larger certain ironic distance from Barker’s inflated audience of London offered him better claims. The first, printed in The World on opportunities for its profitable exploitation.13 26 March 1789 and reprinted in The Times a Barker’s removal to London was announced few days later, located the exhibition within to the public in spring 1789 by a series of debate on the theory of painting. newspaper notices and advertising handbills. The original undated handbill is addressed to When we reflect minutely on Mr. Barker’s ‘Connoisseurs’ and explains that the ‘celebrated Exhibition in the Haymarket, we are at a loss View of Edinburgh’ is exhibited in a building at to conjecture where improvement will end. No. 28, Hay-Market. To consider an art of the duration of ages, at all periods confined to the space of a limited There is no Deception of Glasses, or any angle, to which all the World were other whatever; the View being only a fair reconciled, now burst open upon us, as it Sketch, displaying at once a Circle of a very were the full effect of Nature, in her most extraordinary Extent, the same as if on the unbounded sweep, shews to what the human Spot; forming, perhaps, one of the most mind is capable of arriving at. Picturesque Views in Europe. The anonymous reviewer placed Barker’s The Idea is entirely New, and the Effect circular painting at the forefront of an historical produced by fair Perspective, a proper Point progress of painterly ‘improvement’, utilising of View, and unlimiting the Bounds of the here a key term of the Whig ideology of human Art of Painting. perfectibility. Where landscape painting had From early April, Barker used the text of the hitherto been constrained to a ‘limited angle’ handbill, almost verbatim, in advertisements in between 45 to 60 degrees, Barker’s 180-degree newspapers: first in The Diary, or Woodfall’s view of Edinburgh showed ‘the full effect of Register (9 April 1789), and subsequently, Nature, in her most unbounded sweep’. somewhat revised, in The Times (15 April Barker’s achievement, moreover, made a deep 1789).14 These advertisements establish much of impression on the observer, that the reviewer what is known about the quotidian articulated in the discourse of the sublime. arrangements of the spectacle: hours of The vast gratification with which this idea is business, cost of admission, the limited number pregnant, and which we hear that Artist of spectators admitted at one time, and early means to pursue, must give real cause for experiments with artificial lighting.The handbill joyful expectancy to every Amateur of an and advertisements also establish discursive Art which may now, nearly, be called parameters for the painting, distinguishing it Sublime; it seems surely not far from the from competing spectacles, and reinforcing the summit of perfection.15 painting’s novelty and grandeur, and its intellectual ambition (‘unlimiting the Bounds In gesturing to the sublime, the reviewer of the Art of Painting’).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Recession of 1797?
    SAE./No.48/February 2016 Studies in Applied Economics WHAT CAUSED THE RECESSION OF 1797? Nicholas A. Curott and Tyler A. Watts Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise What Caused the Recession of 1797? By Nicholas A. Curott and Tyler A. Watts Copyright 2015 by Nicholas A. Curott and Tyler A. Watts About the Series The Studies in Applied Economics series is under the general direction of Prof. Steve H. Hanke, co-director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise ([email protected]). About the Authors Nicholas A. Curott ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor of Economics at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Tyler A. Watts is Professor of Economics at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas. Abstract This paper presents a monetary explanation for the U.S. recession of 1797. Credit expansion initiated by the Bank of the United States in the early 1790s unleashed a bout of inflation and low real interest rates, which spurred a speculative investment bubble in real estate and capital intensive manufacturing and infrastructure projects. A correction occurred as domestic inflation created a disparity in international prices that led to a reduction in net exports. Specie flowed out of the country, prices began to fall, and real interest rates spiked. In the ensuing credit crunch, businesses reliant upon rolling over short term debt were rendered unsustainable. The general economic downturn, which ensued throughout 1797 and 1798, involved declines in the price level and nominal GDP, the bursting of the real estate bubble, and a cluster of personal bankruptcies and business failures.
    [Show full text]
  • The Democratic Societies of the 1790S
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020-11-27 “Fire-Brands of Sedition”: The Democratic Societies of the 1790s Carr, Chloe Madison Carr, C. M. (2020). “Fire-Brands of Sedition”: The Democratic Societies of the 1790s (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/112798 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY “Fire-Brands of Sedition”: The Democratic Societies of the 1790s by Chloe Madison Carr A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA NOVEMBER, 2020 © Chloe Madison Carr 2020 ii Abstract The citizen-led Democratic-Republican or Democratic societies in the United States represented a new era of political discourse in the 1790s. Members of these societies, frustrated by their sense that the emerging Federalist executive branch of government was becoming dangerously elitist, and alienated by decision-making in Congress, met regularly to compose resolutions to publish in local and national papers and so make their concerns widely known. Many Federalists, in and out of government, became wary of these societies and their increased presence in the public sphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Few Americans in the 1790S Would Have Predicted That the Subject Of
    AMERICAN NAVAL POLICY IN AN AGE OF ATLANTIC WARFARE: A CONSENSUS BROKEN AND REFORGED, 1783-1816 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jeffrey J. Seiken, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor John Guilmartin, Jr., Advisor Professor Margaret Newell _______________________ Professor Mark Grimsley Advisor History Graduate Program ABSTRACT In the 1780s, there was broad agreement among American revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton about the need for a strong national navy. This consensus, however, collapsed as a result of the partisan strife of the 1790s. The Federalist Party embraced the strategic rationale laid out by naval boosters in the previous decade, namely that only a powerful, seagoing battle fleet offered a viable means of defending the nation's vulnerable ports and harbors. Federalists also believed a navy was necessary to protect America's burgeoning trade with overseas markets. Republicans did not dispute the desirability of the Federalist goals, but they disagreed sharply with their political opponents about the wisdom of depending on a navy to achieve these ends. In place of a navy, the Republicans with Jefferson and Madison at the lead championed an altogether different prescription for national security and commercial growth: economic coercion. The Federalists won most of the legislative confrontations of the 1790s. But their very success contributed to the party's decisive defeat in the election of 1800 and the abandonment of their plans to create a strong blue water navy.
    [Show full text]
  • American Economic Policy in the 1790S the Significance of The
    Founding Choices: American Economic Policy in the 1790s The Significance of the Founding Choices: Editors’ Introduction By Douglas A. Irwin and Richard Sylla Bookstores today are awash with titles that celebrate America’s Founding Fathers as courageous and far‐sighted leaders who not only guided the nation through the difficult period of achieving independence from Britain but also established a system of government that has survived relatively unchanged for more than two centuries. Almost completely ignored in this outpouring of works, however, is a sense for the economic policy achievements of the founders. The neglect of economic policy is surprising when it is considered that the United States of 1790, a relatively small economy with fewer than four million people on the periphery of a European‐centered world and facing a host of economic problems because it had the temerity to declare its independence, would in a century become the world’s largest economy. In two centuries it would become an economic and political colossus with a larger population than any other country except China and India. Those later developments were rooted to a greater extent than is generally appreciated in the economic policy decisions made in the 1790s. This book redresses this neglect by bringing together leading scholars to examine the early economic policies adopted by the new government in the years after 1789. Ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787 broke the gridlock that afflicted decision‐making about economic policy under the Articles of Confederation. The chapters that follow study the economic policy options that were opened up by the new framework of government, and which choices were implemented.
    [Show full text]
  • Judicial Foreign Policy: Lessons from the 1790S
    Saint Louis University Law Journal Volume 53 Number 1 The Use and Misuse of History in Article 12 U.S. Foreign Relations Law (Fall 2008) 2008 Judicial Foreign Policy: Lessons From the 1790s David Sloss Santa Clara University Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation David Sloss, Judicial Foreign Policy: Lessons From the 1790s, 53 St. Louis U. L.J. (2008). Available at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol53/iss1/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Saint Louis University Law Journal by an authorized editor of Scholarship Commons. For more information, please contact Susie Lee. SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW JUDICIAL FOREIGN POLICY: LESSONS FROM THE 1790s DAVID SLOSS* INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 146 I. BACKGROUND: FRENCH PRIVATEERING IN THE 1790S ............................... 151 II. U.S. NEUTRALITY POLICY: FROM FEBRUARY 1793 TO JUNE 1794 ............ 153 A. Historical Context ....................................................................... 154 B. Substantive Rules Governing Privateers ..................................... 156 1. Sale of Prizes ......................................................................... 156 2. Recruiting U.S. Citizens ........................................................ 158 3. Outfitting Ships in U.S. Ports ...............................................
    [Show full text]
  • Dress in Upper Canada 1790-1840
    DRESS IN UPPER CANADA 1790-1840 By Hannah Erika Milliken Bachelor of Arts, Honours, With Distinction University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 2011-2015. A MRP presented to Ryerson University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the program of Fashion Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2018. © Hannah Milliken, 2018. Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this MRP. This is a true copy of the MRP, including any required final revisions. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this MRP to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this MRP by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my MRP may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract Dress in Upper Canada 1790-1840 Master of Arts, 2018 Hannah Erika Milliken Fashion, Ryerson University This MRP aims to uncover unknown details of Canada’s early dress history in the lives of early colonial settlers in Niagara and surrounding Upper Canadian settlements between 1790 and 1840. This study explores the access they had to goods and services, their loyalty to the imperial parent nation of Great Britain, and their adaptability to the conditions of a rudimentary frontier. The central conclusion is that relationships to fashion and dress were remarkably sophisticated in early Upper Canadian societies iii Acknowledgements My sincerest thanks to my supervisor Alison Matthews David for all her help and guidance.
    [Show full text]
  • Elizabeth Drinker: Quaker Values and Federalist Support in the 1790S
    Elizabeth Drinker: Quaker Values and Federalist Support in the 1790s Susan Branson At the conclusion of peace between the United States and Britain in 1783, Elizabeth Drinker made a prediction for the succeeding years: "this day was printed the King's speech to both Houses of Parliment Decr. 5"' - bespeaking peace, and Independence; I fear they will not long agreed togeather with us."' Her prediction held true throughout the following decade and beyond. During the 1790s Drinker repeatedly expressed her desire for a "well-regulated government," with leaders who would bring peace and order to society. She was frequently disap- pointed.2 Elizabeth Drinker was a woman deeply concerned about, and intimately involved with, the politics of her time. No significant event passed without comment in her diary. Through a combination of her observation, conversation, and reading, we can piece together the polit- ical ideology of this extraordinary woman. With the experiences of the Revolution fresh in her consciousness, Drinker articulated a Federalist interpretation of government and the construction of a civil society. What Drinker sought, but never experienced, was a peaceful, well- regulated society devoid of contention, factions, and crowd actions. Instead, what she and other Americans witnessed in the 1790s was a period of turbulence both at home and abroad. They lived under a dem- ocratic government in its infancy, still undergoing change and develop- ment. This process was rarely a quiet one. And in Philadelphia, the cap- ital city, the political contentiousness between Federalists and Democratic Republicans generated a great deal of public activity, accompanied in many instances by noise and occasional violence.
    [Show full text]
  • The Significance of Population Data (Teacher Version)
    AUTHORIZING THE FIRST CENSUS — THE SIGNIFICANCE OF POPULATION DATA TEACHER VERSION Subject Level: Learning Objectives: High School History • Students will be able to understand primary sources. Grade Level: • Students will be able to identify and explain the short- and long-term impact of the 1790 act authorizing the census. 11–12 Approx. Time Required: 45–60 minutes AUTHORIZING THE FIRST CENSUS — THE SIGNIFICANCE OF POPULATION DATA TEACHER VERSION Activity Description Students will analyze excerpts from the 1790 legislation that allowed for the administration of the first decennial census and from the congressional debate on the matter to increase their understanding of the political, economic, and social changes that took place after the American Revolution. They will also use this context to consider the challenges of collecting census data today. Suggested Grade Level: Approximate Time Required: 11–12 45–60 minutes Learning Objectives: • Students will be able to understand primary sources. • Students will be able to identify and explain the short- and long-term impact of the 1790 act authorizing the census. Topics: Skills Taught: • American Revolution • Examining primary sources • Early Republic • Making comparisons CENSUS.GOV/SCHOOLS HISTORY | PAGE 1 AUTHORIZING THE FIRST CENSUS — THE SIGNIFICANCE OF POPULATION DATA TEACHER VERSION Material Required • The student version of this activity, 7 pages Activity Items The following items are part of this activity. Items, their sources, and instructions for viewing them online appear at the end of this teacher version. • Item 1: Chapter II – An Act Providing for the Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States • Item 2: Excerpt of Congressional Remarks During the Census Debate For more information to help you introduce your students to the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • The French Language in Russia in French Language The
    8 LANGUAGES AND CULTURE IN HISTORY Offord, Rjéoutski & Argent The Language French in Russia Derek Offord, Vladislav Rjéoutski, and Gesine Argent The French Language in Russia A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History The French Language in Russia Languages and Culture in History This series studies the role foreign languages have played in the creation of the linguistic and cultural heritage of Europe, both western and eastern, and at the individual, community, national or transnational level. At the heart of this series is the historical evolution of linguistic and cultural policies, internal as well as external, and their relationship with linguistic and cultural identities. The series takes an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of historical issues: the diffusion, the supply and the demand for foreign languages, the history of pedagogical practices, the historical relationship between languages in a given cultural context, the public and private use of foreign languages – in short, every way foreign languages intersect with local languages in the cultural realm. Series Editors Willem Frijhoff, Erasmus University Rotterdam Karène Sanchez-Summerer, Leiden University Editorial Board Members Gerda Hassler, University of Potsdam Douglas A. Kibbee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Marie-Christine Kok Escalle, Utrecht University Joep Leerssen, University of Amsterdam Nicola McLelland, The University of Nottingham Despina Provata, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Konrad Schröder, University of Augsburg Valérie Spaëth, University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle Javier Suso López, University of Granada Pierre Swiggers, KU Leuven The French Language in Russia A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History Derek Offord, Vladislav Rjéoutski, and Gesine Argent Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Front page of Gazette de St.
    [Show full text]
  • The "Loyalist" Economy of Upper Canada, 1784-1806*
    The "Loyalist" Economy of Upper Canada, 1784-1806* Douglas McCALLA * * This paper surveys the first twenty years of the Upper Canadian economy and its development in the wake of the initial Loyalist settlements. Referring to evidence on population growth, wheat prices, British government expenditures, exports, agricultural development, the domestic market, and the nature of the colonial business system, it dis­ cusses the forces for growth in this economy. No one factor can explain the development that took place in the period, though the paper stresses the investment process, particularly as embodied in immigration and in the creation of new farms; reasons for patterns here are sought in the presumed expectations of new settlers, in conjunction with their experience once involved in the economy. The paper argues for long-term continuities in patterns of growth for Upper Canada, from this period to c. 1850, as indicated in wheat output and exports per capita, land cultivated per capita, rates of population growth, the role of the trade cycle, and the nature of the business system that sustained the development that went on. L'auteur s'interroge ici sur les facteurs de croissance de l'economie du Haul­ Canada au cours des vingt premieres annees d'existence de Ia province, qui furent mar­ quees par l'arrivee des Loyalistes. Des facteurs pris en consideration- croissance demo­ graphique, prix du bte, depenses publiques de Ia metropole dans Ia province, expor­ tations, developpement agricole, marche interieur et nature du reseau commercial en regime colonial - aucun ne suffit, isolement, ii expliquer /'expansion survenue au cours de Ia periode.
    [Show full text]
  • Print, Publicity, and Popular Radicalism in the 1790S
    PRINT, PUBLICITY, AND POPULAR RADICALISM IN THE 1790S Jon Mee explores the popular democratic movement that emerged in the London of the 1790s in response to the French Revolution. Central to the movement’s achievement was the creation of an idea of ‘the people’ brought into being through print and publicity. Radical clubs rose and fell in the face of the hostile attentions of government. They were sustained by a faith in the press as a form of ‘print magic’, but confidence in the liberating potential of the printing press was interwoven with hard-headed deliberations over how best to animate and represent the people. Ideas of disinterested rational debate were thrown into the mix with coruscating satire, rousing songs, and republican toasts. Print personality became a vital interface between readers and text exploited by the cast of radicals returned to history in vivid detail by Print, Publicity, and Popular Radicalism. This title is available as Open Access at 10.1017/ 9781316459935. jon mee is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the Univer- sity of York and Director of the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies. He has published many essays and books on the literature, culture, and politics of the age of revolutions in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He is also author of The Cambridge Introduction to Charles Dickens (Cambridge, 2010). CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM Founding editor professor marilyn butler, University of Oxford General editor professor james chandler, University of Chicago Editorial Board john barrell, University of York paul hamilton, University of London mary jacobus, University of Cambridge claudia johnson, Princeton University alan liu, University of California, Santa Barbara jerome mcgann, University of Virginia david simpson, University of California, Davis This series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging fields within English literary studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Founding Choices: American Economic Policy in the 1790S
    This PDF is a selection from a published volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: Founding Choices: American Economic Policy in the 1790s Volume Author/Editor: Douglas Irwin and Richard Sylla, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-38474-8 (cloth); 0-226-38475-6 (paper) ISBN13: 978-0-226-38474-0 (cloth); 978-0-226-38475-7 (paper) Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/irwi09-1 Conference Date: May 8-9, 2009 Publication Date: December 2010 Chapter Title: The Significance of the Founding Choices: Editors’ Introduction Chapter Authors: Douglas A. Irwin, Richard Sylla Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11735 Chapter pages in book: (1 - 21) The Signifi cance of the Founding Choices Editors’ Introduction Douglas A. Irwin and Richard Sylla Bookstores today are awash with titles that celebrate America’s Founding Fathers as courageous and far- sighted leaders who not only guided the nation through the difficult period of achieving independence from Britain, but also established a system of government that has survived relatively unchanged for more than two centuries. Almost completely ignored in this outpouring of works, however, is a sense for the economic policy achievements of the founders. The neglect of economic policy is surprising. The United States in 1790 was a relatively small economy compared to the leading nations of Europe and Asia. Within a century it would become the world’s larg- est economy. In two centuries it would become an economic and political colossus with a larger population than any other country except China and India.
    [Show full text]