History, Religion, and Culture
British Intellectual History 1750–1950

Two volumes containing essays by leading scholars in modern British intellectual history.

Stefan Collini (Edited by), Richard Whatmore (Edited by), Brian Young (Edited by)

9780521626385, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 May 2000

298 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 1.07 kg

'… does not disappoint.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Modern British intellectual history has been a particularly flourishing field of enquiry in recent years, and these two tightly integrated volumes contain major new essays by almost all of its leading proponents. The contributors examine the history of British ideas over the past two centuries from a number of perspectives that together constitute a major new overview of the subject. History, Religion, and Culture begins with eighteenth-century historiography, especially Gibbon's Decline and Fall. It takes up different aspects of the place of religion in nineteenth-century cultural and political life, such as attitudes towards the native religions of India, the Victorian perception of Oliver Cromwell, and the religious sensibility of John Ruskin. Finally, in discussions which range up to the middle of the twentieth century, the volume explores relations between scientific ideas about change or development and assumptions about the nature and growth of the national community.

Preface
General introduction Stefan Collini
Presentation of 'History, Religion, and Culture'
Part I: 1. Historical distance and the historiography of eighteenth-century Britain Mark Phillips
2. Gibbon and the primitive church J. G. A. Pocock
3. Gibbon's religious characters David Womersley
Part II: 4. 'The lust of empire and religious hate': Christianity, history, and India 1790–1820 Brian Young
5. The Victorians and Oliver Cromwell Blair Worden
6. Religion and politics in the Quarterly Review 1809–53 William Thomas
7. Ruskin's way: Tout à fait comme un oiseau John Drury
Part III: 8. The politics of anatomy and an anatomy of politics c.1825–50 Boyd Hilton
9. Images of time: from Carlylean vulcanism to sedimentary gradualism John Burrow
10. 'Race' and 'nation' in mid-Victorian thought Peter Mandler
11. Political thought and national identity 1850–1950 Julia Stapleton
Acknowledgements
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]