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Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
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The Idea of Progress in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Hardcover, New)
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The Idea of Progress in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Hardcover, New)
Series: Yale Historical Publications Series
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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The idea of progress stood at the very center of the intellectual
world of eighteenth-century Britain, closely linked to every major
facet of the British Enlightenment as well as to the economic
revolutions of the period. David Spadafora here provides the most
extensive discussion ever written of this prevailing sense of
historical optimism, challenging long-held views on the extent of
its popularity and its supposed importation from France. Spadafora
demonstrates persuasively that British contributions to the idea of
progress were wide-ranging and fully elaborated while owing little
to the French. Drawing on hundreds of eighteenth-century books and
pamphlets, Spadafora traces the development of historical progress
across the century. In the process, he distinguishes among the
intellectual and social sources of the idea's growth and argues
that its popularity soared after mid-century. He identifies and
examines in depth each of the most widespread varieties of the
concept of progress, including those found in thinking about the
arts and sciences, religion and the millennium, the human mind and
education, and languages. Spadafora cites and evaluates men of
letters, theologians and historians, and scientists and
politicians. In his discussion of the belief in general progress,
he explores the differences between English writers such as
Priestley, Price, and Edmund Law and the somewhat less optimistic
Scottish thinkers such as Hume, Smith, and Robertson. He concludes
by tracing the profound impact of the eighteenth-century idea of
progress on the first half of the nineteenth century in Britain and
its implications for modernity. "A solid and sophisticated
contribution to intellectual history written in a clear,
authoritative, and attractive style. This is an important book."
-Bernard Semmel, author of John Stuart Mill and the Pursuit of
Virtue
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