Politics and the Nation Britain in the Mid-Eighteenth Century

This book presents a new picture of political life in mid-18th century Britain, a period of history which is poorly understood. It argues that British politics and political culture in this period have often been poorly understood through over-emphasis on political stability. Using a thematic approach, it reconstructs a political world in which vital issues continued to exercise the minds and emotions of those who made up the contemporary ‘political nation’, a group which included far more than the handful of politicians who competed for national political office. The book interprets its subject broadly and tells the stories of politics in the mid-18th century through the words and projects, hopes and fears, of contemporaries. It also represents an important contribution to the difficult, but important, project of writing the history of the British Isles. Developments in Scotland and Ireland are given careful attention along with those of England.