Iain McCalman – författare

This is a paperback edition of a highly acclaimed study of English popular radicalism during the period between the anti-Jacobin government `Terror' of the 1790s and the beginnings of Chartism. Challenging conventional distinctions between `high' and `low' culture, Iain McCalman brilliantly reveals the links between the political underworld and literary culture, poverty, crime, and prophetic religion. Drawing on information from spy reports and contemporary literature, the book traces for the first time the history of the underground revolutionary-republican grouping founded by the agrarian reformer, Thomas Spence. Challenging conventional distinctions between 'high' and 'low' culture, McCalman illuminates the darker, more populist sides of Romanticism. His underworld of ideas links the Shelleys to pornographer-revolutionaries and political blackmailers, millenarian prophecy to discourses of blasphemy, black revolution and saturnalian theatricality, and radical journalism to the Grub Street undergrowth of bawdy and pornography which sprang up in the opening years of Queen Victoria's reign. Radical Underworld broadens the conventional boundaries of popular politics and culture by illuminating a political underworld connected with poverty, crime, prophetic religion and literary culture. It is a model of cultural history and a major re-evaluation of its topic.

For the first time in this innovative reference book the Romantic Age is surveyed across all aspects of British culture, rather than in literary or artistic terms alone. The Companion's two-part structure presents forty-two essays on major topics, by leading international experts, cross-referenced to an extensive alphabetical section covering all the principal figures, events, and movements in the broad culture of the period. Aimed at students and general readers as well as scholars, the essays constitute an accessible, pluralistic, and modern social history of the epoch; the alphabetical entries can either be used alongside them, for deeper information on specific subjects, or as a free-standing reference tool. The volume as a whole embraces both high and low culture, and explores its subject across the whole breadth of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.The book's multi-disciplinary approach treats Romanticism both in aesthetic terms-its meaning for painting, music, design, architecture, and above all literature-and as a historical epoch of 'revolutionary' transformations which ushered in modern democratic and industrialized society. In this period Wedgwood turned taste into a commercial enterprise, Pierce Egan took Britain by storm with his sensational accounts of low-life in the capital, and Mary Shelley created, in Frankenstein, one of the enduring myths of scientific advance. The Companion revitalizes canonical Romantic figures in the context of the historical events, political and linguistic debates, commercial pressures, and plebeian subcultures of their day, as well as bringing back into historical focus individuals and events whose impact has often been muffled or forgotten.With over 100 integrated illustrations, bibliographies accompanying all the major essays, and an index to Part 1, this is the most comprehensive volume of its kind, offering a unique breadth of information to scholars and students of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British culture, literature, and history.EDITORIAL BOARD:John Brewer (University of California) Marilyn Butler (Exeter College, University of Oxford)James Chandler (University of Chicago)Jerome J. McGann ( University of Virginia, Charlottesville)Mark Philp (Oriel College, Oxford)Robert Webb (University of Maryland)

Since the late 1700s new forms of visual entertainment have tried to simulate the details of nature: reenactment has now become the most widely-consumed form of popular history. This book engages with the quest for definition and appropriate delimitation of reenactment as well as questions about the relationship between realism and affect.

"Sparkling ... an extraordinary true-adventure story, complete with trials, tribulations and moments of exultation."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

The Enlightenment World offers an informed, comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the European Enlightenment (c. 1720-1800) as both an historical epoch and a cultural formation. This prestigious collection begins with the intellectual origins of the Enlightenment, and spans early formations up to both contemporary and modern critics of the Enlightenment. The chapters, written by leading international experts, represent the most cutting-edge research within the field and include:The High EnlightenmentPolite Culture and the ArtsReforming the WorldMaterial and Pop CultureTransformations and Exploration.Covering topics as diverse as government, fashion, craftsmen and artisans, philanthropy, cross-cultural encounters, feminism, censorship, science and education, this volume will provide essential reading for all students of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment World offers an informed, comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the European Enlightenment (c. 1720–1800) as both an historical epoch and a cultural formation. This prestigious collection begins with the intellectual origins of the Enlightenment, and spans early formations up to both contemporary and modern critics of the Enlightenment. The chapters, written by leading international experts, represent the most cutting-edge research within the field and include:the high enlightenmentpolite culture and the artsreforming the worldmaterial and popular culturetransformations and exploration.Covering topics as diverse as government, fashion, craftsmen and artisans, philanthropy, cross-cultural encounters, feminism, censorship, science and education, this volume provides a thorough survey of the Enlightenment in Europe.

Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural ramifications of invasion ecologies. The impossibility of securing national boundaries against accidental transfer and the unpredictable climatic changes of our time have introduced new dimensions and hazards to this old issue. Written by a team of international scholars, this book allows us to rethink the impact on national, regional or local ecologies of the deliberate or accidental introduction of foreign species, plant and animal. Modern environmental approaches that treat nature with naïve realism or mobilize it as a moral absolute, unaware or unwilling to accept that it is informed by specific cultural and temporal values, are doomed to fail. Instead, this book shows that we need to understand the complex interactions of ecologies and societies in the past, present and future over the Anthropocene, in order to address problems of the global environmental crisis. It demonstrates how humanistic methods and disciplines can be used to bring fresh clarity and perspective on this long vexed aspect of environmental thought and practice.Students and researchers in environmental studies, invasion ecology, conservation biology, environmental ethics, environmental history and environmental policy will welcome this major contribution to environmental humanities.

Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural ramifications of invasion ecologies. The impossibility of securing national boundaries against accidental transfer and the unpredictable climatic changes of our time have introduced new dimensions and hazards to this old issue. Written by a team of international scholars, this book allows us to rethink the impact on national, regional or local ecologies of the deliberate or accidental introduction of foreign species, plant and animal. Modern environmental approaches that treat nature with naïve realism or mobilize it as a moral absolute, unaware or unwilling to accept that it is informed by specific cultural and temporal values, are doomed to fail. Instead, this book shows that we need to understand the complex interactions of ecologies and societies in the past, present and future over the Anthropocene, in order to address problems of the global environmental crisis. It demonstrates how humanistic methods and disciplines can be used to bring fresh clarity and perspective on this long vexed aspect of environmental thought and practice.Students and researchers in environmental studies, invasion ecology, conservation biology, environmental ethics, environmental history and environmental policy will welcome this major contribution to environmental humanities.

Throughout history, gold has been the stuff of legends, fortunes, conflict and change. The discovery of gold in Australia 150 years ago precipitated enormous developments in the newly settled land. Immigrants flooded in from Asia and Europe, and the population and economy boomed in spontaneous cities. The effects on both the environment and indigenous Aboriginal peoples have been profound and lasting. In the most unexpected ways, gold has shaped modern Australia. In this book, a team of Australia's most prominent historians and curators have collaborated to produce a cultural history of gold and its impact on the development of Australian society. Like a handful of tailings, Gold brings together a collection of stories that have been left out of standard Australian histories. In between runs a critical analysis of the relationship between gold and social change, race relations, gender, the environment, entertainment and industry.

Newgate in Revolution provides a useful and thought-provoking anthology of radical literature - satirical, philosophical and political writings - issued by the radicals and religious dissenters imprisoned in Newgate during the turbulent and nervous period 1780-1848. Newgate was a dreaded prison during this period and its image and reputation coupled to make it the English equivalent of the French Bastille. For those who found themselves incarcerated in Newgate the experience was debilitating and repressive. However, in the case of the radical prisoners it is a curious irony that this repressive environment actually encouraged a fraternal spirit and fertilised a rich production of ideas and literature, which today offers a rare insight into this unique and fascinating culture. Newgate in Revolution reproduces a representative selection of the radical literature published from Newgate, including the first edited version of the prison diary of Thomas Lloyd.

Throughout history, gold has been the stuff of legends, fortunes, conflict and change. The discovery of gold in Australia 150 years ago precipitated enormous developments in the newly settled land. Immigrants flooded in from Asia and Europe, and the population and economy boomed in spontaneous cities. The effects on both the environment and indigenous Aboriginal peoples have been profound and lasting. In the most unexpected ways, gold has shaped modern Australia. In this book, a team of Australia's most prominent historians and curators have collaborated to produce a cultural history of gold and its impact on the development of Australian society. Like a handful of tailings, Gold brings together a collection of stories that have been left out of standard Australian histories. In between runs a critical analysis of the relationship between gold and social change, race relations, gender, the environment, entertainment and industry.

Since the late 1700s new forms of visual entertainment have tried to simulate the details of nature: reenactment has now become the most widely-consumed form of popular history. This book engages with the quest for definition and appropriate delimitation of reenactment as well as questions about the relationship between realism and affect.

Known to his enemies as 'The Bingil Bay Bastard', John Busst, a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist, moved to tropical Bedarra Island in North Queensland and underwent an extraordinary transformation to become one of Australia's most successful conservationists. In the 1960s and early 70s Busst led campaigns to protect two of Australia's most important and endangered environments — saving lowland rainforests from destruction and the Great Barrier Reef from reckless resource mining for oil, gas, cement and fertiliser. A plan Busst likened to 'bulldozing the Taj Mahal to make road gravel'. Along the way Busst obtained the active support of five current or future prime ministers — Holt, Whitlam, Gorton, Hawke and Fraser.This inspiring biography, from award-winning historian Iain McCalman, is a timely reminder that the passionate commitment of ordinary citizens is crucial to achieving truly transformative environmental change.