This study peers behind the veil of architectural styles to the underlying social microcosm of the 'building world' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to examine how the fragile authority of the architect took root there. Bringing to architectural history methods more familiar from studies of the social content of poetry and painting, Brian Hanson is able to establish often surprising relationships between many of the key figures of the period - including Chambers, Soane, Barry, Pugin, Scott and Street - shedding light also on lesser figures, and on agencies as diverse as Freemasonry and magazine publishing. John Ruskin in particular emerges here in a different light, as do his arguments concerning 'The Nature of Gothic'. In line with rethinking of the pace of industrialization, and the dynamic between the metropolitan centres and the more slowly evolving 'fringes', Hanson concludes that in some respects Ruskin was closer to William Chambers than to William Morris.

This study peers behind the veil of architectural styles to the underlying social microcosm of the ‘building world’ of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, to examine how the fragile authority of the architect took root. Bringing to architectural history methods more familiar from studies of the social content of poetry and painting, Brian Hanson is able to establish new, and often surprising relationships between many of the key figures of the period - including Chambers, Soane, Barry, Pugin, Scott and Street - and to shed new light on lesser figures, and on agencies as diverse as freemasonry and magazine publishing. John Ruskin in particular emerges here in an entirely new light, as do his arguments concerning ‘The Nature of Gothic’. Following recent rethinking of the pace of industrialisation, and the dynamic between the metropolitan centres and the more slowly evolving ‘fringes’, Hanson concludes that in some respects Ruskin was closer to William Chambers than to William Morris.

This study considers sixteenth century evangelicals vision of a godly commonwealth within the broader context of political, religious, social, and intellectual changes in Tudor England. Using the clergyman and bestselling author, Thomas Becon (1512-1567), as a case study, Brian L. Hanson argues that evangelical views of the commonwealth were situation-dependent rather than uniform, fluctuating from individual to individual. His study examines the ways commonwealth rhetoric was used by evangelicals and how that rhetoric developed and changed. While this study draws from English Reformation historiography by acknowledging the chronology of reform, it engages with interdisciplinary texts on poverty, gender, and the economy in order to demonstrate the intersection of commonwealth rhetoric with Renaissance humanism. Furthermore, the experience of exile and the languages of prophecy and companionship directly influenced commonwealth rhetoric and dictated the priorities, vocabulary, and political expression of the evangelicals. As sixteenth-century England vacillated in its religious direction and priorities, the evangelicals were faced with a political conundrum and the tension between obedience and lawful disobedience. There was ultimately a fundamental disagreement on the nature and criteria of obedience. Hansons study makes a further contribution to the emerging conversation about English commonwealth politics by examining the important issues of obedience and disobedience within the evangelical community. A correct assessment of the issues surrounding the relationship between evangelicals and the commonwealth government will lead to a rediscovery of both the complexities of evangelical commonwealth rhetoric and the tension between the biblical command to submit to civil authorities and the injunction to obey God rather than man.