Jack Lynch is assistant professor of English at Rutgers University. He is co-editor, with Paul J. Korshin, of The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual. He is the author of A Bibliography of Johnsonian Studies, 1986-1998 (2000) and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language (2002).

Review of the hardback: 'An original and major contribution to the reader's understanding of eighteenth-century cultural identity.' The New Rambler

• Preface; Note on the texts and citation; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Struggling to emerge from barbarity: historiography and the idea of the classic; 2. Learning's triumph: historicism and the spirit of the age; 3. Call Britannia's glories back to view: Tudor history and Hanoverian historians; 4. The rage of Reformation: religious controversy and political stability; 5. The ground-work of stile: language and national identity; 6. Studied barbarity: Jonson, Spenser, and the idea of progress; 7. The last age: Renaissance lost; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Jack Lynch is assistant professor of English at Rutgers University. He is co-editor, with Paul J. Korshin, of The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual. He is the author of A Bibliography of Johnsonian Studies, 1986-1998 (2000) and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language (2002).

Review of the hardback: 'An original and major contribution to the reader's understanding of eighteenth-century cultural identity.' The New Rambler

• Preface; Note on the texts and citation; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Struggling to emerge from barbarity: historiography and the idea of the classic; 2. Learning's triumph: historicism and the spirit of the age; 3. Call Britannia's glories back to view: Tudor history and Hanoverian historians; 4. The rage of Reformation: religious controversy and political stability; 5. The ground-work of stile: language and national identity; 6. Studied barbarity: Jonson, Spenser, and the idea of progress; 7. The last age: Renaissance lost; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Jack Lynch is assistant professor of English at Rutgers University. He is co-editor, with Paul J. Korshin, of The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual. He is the author of A Bibliography of Johnsonian Studies, 1986-1998 (2000) and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language (2002).

Review of the hardback: 'An original and major contribution to the reader's understanding of eighteenth-century cultural identity.' The New Rambler

• Preface; Note on the texts and citation; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Struggling to emerge from barbarity: historiography and the idea of the classic; 2. Learning's triumph: historicism and the spirit of the age; 3. Call Britannia's glories back to view: Tudor history and Hanoverian historians; 4. The rage of Reformation: religious controversy and political stability; 5. The ground-work of stile: language and national identity; 6. Studied barbarity: Jonson, Spenser, and the idea of progress; 7. The last age: Renaissance lost; Notes; Bibliography; Index.