Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Britain - PowerPoint Presentation

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Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Lecture 1: The eighteenth

century: an introductionSlide2

Class: Thomas Gainsborough, ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’, c.1750

aristocracy, landed gentry and an aspirant middle class - a culture of deference?Slide3

Sociability: ‘a polite and commercial people,’ and the ‘urban renaissance’Slide4

Enlightenment and empireJoseph Wright of Derby, ‘A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery,’ 1766Slide5

Liberty and corruptionWilliam Hogarth, ‘John Wilkes,’ 1763

1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’ established the principle of a constitutional monarchy

= ‘balanced constitution’ of monarch, lords and commons

Challenge to the regime

1688-1745 –

Jacobites

From the 1760s – reformers and radicals

Whigs and Tories were the main political parties, though the Whigs dominated government throughout the century

‘liberty’ versus ‘corruption’ were the key wordsSlide6

Crime and the underworldWilliam Hogarth, ‘The Idle Prentice executed at Tyburn,’ 1747Slide7

William Hogarth (1697-1764)Self-portrait, ‘The painter and his pug,’ 1745Slide8

Key theme

According to Hogarth, the fa

çade of a ‘polite and commercial people’ hid the reality of luxury and corruption in both eighteenth-century society and politics.Slide9

‘The Rake taking possession of his estate’, plate 1 of William Hogarth,‘The Rake’s Progress’ (1734)

http://www.soane.org/collections_legacy/the_soane_hogarths/rakes_progress/Slide10

‘The orgy’, plate 3Slide11

plate 6, ‘The Rake at the Gaming House’Slide12

plate 7, ‘The Rake in Prison’ Slide13

plate 8, ‘The Rake in Bedlam’ Slide14

William Hogarth, ‘An election entertainment’ from ‘The Election’ (1754)Slide15

‘Chairing the Member’ from ‘The Election’ (1754)Slide16

William Hogarth, ‘Gin Lane’ and ‘Beer Street’, 1751Slide17

William Hogarth, ‘Gin Lane,’ 1751Slide18

William Hogarth, ‘Beer Street,’ 1751