English Literature in History. 1730–80 - John Barrell

In eighteenth-century Britain, the study of history was understood first and foremost as the study of how states developed—and lost—their political coherence. But at the same time, writers, preoccupied by contemporary social change, were coming to believe that economic progress was largely dependent on an ever-increasing variety of trades and occupations. Could this highly differentiated society still be understood as ‘unified’, and if so, by whom? Dr Barrell argues that these questions were of central importance not only to historians and social philosophers, but also to poets, novelists, essayists, and even writers of grammar and dictionaries.

First published in 1983, English Literature in History examines how, in response to these questions, an economic theory of society was developed out of an earlier political view of society as an area of conflicting interests which could be regulated by disinterested statesmen and gentlemen. It shows how this new economic theory was perceived as a threat to the function and status of the gentleman, whose character had to be redefined if his authority was to be legitimated. Some of the ways in which this was achieved are traced in detailed analysis of the poetry of James Thomson and John Dyer, and in the novels of Tobias Smollett. A central chapter, focusing on Johnson’s Dictionary, demonstrates how notions of ‘correct’ English were used to confirm the status of the gentleman and to reinforce the authority of the ruling class.