Rotten Bodies

Rotten Bodies
Author: Kevin Siena
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2019-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300233523

A revealing look at how the memory of the plague held the poor responsible for epidemic disease in eighteenth-century Britain Britain had no idea that it would not see another plague after the horrors of 1666, and for a century and a half the fear of epidemic disease gripped and shaped British society. Plague doctors had long asserted that the bodies of the poor were especially prone to generating and spreading contagious disease, and British doctors and laypeople alike took those warnings to heart, guiding medical ideas of class throughout the eighteenth century. Dense congregations of the poor--in workhouses, hospitals, slums, courtrooms, markets, and especially prisons--were rendered sites of immense danger in the public imagination, and the fear that small outbreaks might run wild became a profound cultural force. Extensively researched, with a wide body of evidence, this book offers a fascinating look at how class was constructed physiologically and provides a new connection between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and the ravages of plague and cholera, respectively.

Moginie

Moginie
Author: Daniel Moginié
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1412026776

This is the memoir of Daniel Moginié, a Swiss adventurer, first published in French in Lausanne in 1754 under the title l'Illustre Paisan. Further editions soon appeared in London, Frankfurt and Berne. As a young man Daniel travels to the Netherlands Indies and from there to Persia where he participates in the civil unrest, successively helping the Afghans, the reigning Shah and the usurper Nadir Shah. On Nadir's behalf he fights the Turks and undertakes a mission to Constantinople. Falling from favour he escapes to his former friends in Kandahar and then to India where he serves the Moghul Muhammad Shah. Daniel survives as a titled supporter of the Moghul and marries one of his daughters. When illness overtakes him he longs for reunion with his younger brother François. A sub-plot has it that the Moginié family derives from a line of west Asian kings, who settled in Switzerland after losing power. Daniel also seeks to regain the family status and fortune in the land of his forebears. The two Moginié brothers undoubtedly existed, but much of the book was probably the work of the political writer J-H. Maubert de Gouvest. His convenient plagiarisms show us the east through European eyes before the rise of colonialism and orientalism in the nineteenth century. The condition of Persia and Turkey directly affected Europe because of their borders with the Austrian and Russian empires. The tale is both an adventure and a review of a powerful and important region, its politics, trade and military potential. As the same time it is also a detective story in which the mysteries have not yet been resolved. Did Daniel write the memoir? Was it ghosted by Maubert or entirely written by him? If Maubert wrote it all, did Daniel even reach India? Did François collect his legacy? Who is the author of the notice in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1750? What part was played by the Chollets, father and son? Was François the subject of a hoax or the originator of one (or neither)? Were the Moginie ancestors kings or cowherds? One day the pieces may fit together to form a complete picture. Daniel's brother François/Francis was the founder of an English branch of the family, now established in Australia and New Zealand.

The Beau Monde

The Beau Monde
Author: Hannah Greig
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199659001

The story of the world's first fashion-obsessed society in eighteenth-century London - and the colourful tales of extravagance, vanity, intrigue, and sexual indiscretion that accompanied it

The Daughters of George III

The Daughters of George III
Author: Catherine Curzon
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2020-08-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1473897556

An in-depth look into the lives of the six daughters of King George III of England. In the dying years of the 18th century, the corridors of Windsor echoed to the footsteps of six princesses. They were Charlotte, Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia, the daughters of King George III and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Though more than fifteen years divided the births of the eldest sister from the youngest, these princesses all shared a longing for escape. Faced with their father’s illness and their mother’s dominance, for all but one a life away from the seclusion of the royal household seemed like an unobtainable dream. The six daughters of George III were raised to be young ladies and each in her time was one of the most eligible women in the world. Tutored in the arts of royal womanhood, they were trained from infancy in the skills vital to a regal wife but as the king’s illness ravaged him, husbands and opportunities slipped away. Yet even in isolation, the lives of the princesses were filled with incident. From secret romances to dashing equerries, rumors of pregnancy, clandestine marriage and even a run-in with Napoleon, each princess was the leading lady in her own story, whether tragic or inspirational. In The Daughters of GeorgeIII, take a wander through the hallways of the royal palaces, where the king’s endless ravings echo deep into the night and his daughters strive to be recognized not just as princesses, but as women too. Praise for The Daughters of George III “This fascinating look at the lives and times of the six daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte delivers an engaging read for enthusiasts of the royals and British history.” —Library Journal

Governing Masculinities in the Early Modern Period

Governing Masculinities in the Early Modern Period
Author: Jacqueline Van Gent
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2016-04-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317125657

Documenting lived experiences of men in charge of others, this collection creates a social and cultural history of early modern governing masculinities. It examines the tensions between normative discourses and lived experiences and their manifestations in a range of different sources; and explores the insecurities, anxieties and instability of masculine governance and the ways in which these were expressed (or controlled) in emotional states, language or performance. Focussing on moments of exercising power, the collection seeks to understand the methods, strategies, discourses or resources that men were able (or not) to employ in order to have this power. In order to elucidate the mechanisms of male governance the essays explore the following questions: how was male governance demonstrated and enacted through men's (and women's) bodies? What roles did women play in sustaining, supporting or undermining governing masculinities? And what are the relationship of specific spaces such as household or urban environments to notions and practice of governance? Finally, the collection emphasises the power of sources to articulate the ideas of governance held by particular social groups and to obscure those of others. Through a rich and wide range of case studies, the collection explores what distinctions can be seen in ideas of authoritative masculine behaviour across Protestant and Catholic cultures, British and Continental models, from the late medieval to the end of the eighteenth century, and between urban and national expressions of authority.

Hair

Hair
Author: Susan J. Vincent
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-10-04
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0857851721

Bobs, beards, blondes and beyond, Hair takes us on a lavishly illustrated journey into the world of this remarkable substance and our complicated and fascinating relationship with it. Taking the key things we do to it in turn, this book captures its importance in the past and into the present: to individuals and society, for health and hygiene, in social and political challenge, in creating ideals of masculinity and womanliness, in being a vehicle for gossip, secrets and sex. Using art, film, personal diaries, newspapers, texts and images, Susan J. Vincent unearths the stories we have told about hair and why they are important. From ginger jibes in the seventeenth century to bobbed-hair suicides in the 1920s, from hippies to Roundheads, from bearded women to smooth metrosexuals, Hair shows the significance of the stuff we nurture, remove, style and tend. You will never take it for granted again.

Queen of the Courtesans

Queen of the Courtesans
Author: Barbara White
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2014-06-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0752493884

Fanny Murray (1729-1778) was a famous Georgian beauty and courtesan, desired throughout England and often to be found pressed to a gentleman’s heart in the form of a printed disc secretly tucked into their pocket-watch. She rose from life in the ‘London stews’ to fame and fortune, through her career as a high-class courtesan. She was seduced and then abandoned, aged just 12, by Jack Spencer, grandson of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (and related to the Althorp-based Spencers). Her luck turned when she caught the eye of the infamous Beau Nash, ‘King of Bath’. But it was her time in London that promoted her to national fame and notoriety. After ten years at the top, she was heavily in debt, but managed to secure an arranged marriage to a respectable man. The scandals of her past caught up with her as she was named in the national scandal surrounding Wilke’s pornography case at the High Court.

The Celebrated Hannah Cowley

The Celebrated Hannah Cowley
Author: Angela Escott
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317323467

Hannah Cowley (1743–1809) was a very successful dramatist, and something of an eighteenth-century celebrity. New critical interest in the drama of this period has meant a resurgence of interest in Cowley’s writing and in the performance of her plays. This is the first substantial monograph study to examine Cowley’s life and work.

John Forbes: Scotland, Flanders and the Seven Years' War, 1707-1759

John Forbes: Scotland, Flanders and the Seven Years' War, 1707-1759
Author: John Oliphant
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472511786

In November 1758 Brigadier General John Forbes's army expelled the French army from Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio River. Over seven months Forbes had co-ordinated three obstructive and competitive colonies, managed Indian diplomacy, and cut a road through over a hundred miles of mountain and forest. This is the first full biography of Forbes, which traces his rise from surgeon in the Scots Greys to distinguished service in War of the Austrian Succession before his 1757 posting to North America. John Oliphant puts Forbes' life and career in the wider context of the social and military world of the 18th century and offers important insights into the Seven Years' War in North America.

'A plaine and easie waie to remedie a horse'

'A plaine and easie waie to remedie a horse'
Author: Louise Hill Curth
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2013-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004257705

'A plaine and easie waie to remedie a horse' is the first complete text to focus exclusively on the health and illness of the most important animals in early modern England. It also follows on and further develops the subject of early modern veterinary medicine introduced by Louise Hill Curth in 'The Care of Brute Beasts: a social and cultural study of veterinary medicine in early modern England'. This book is divided into three sections which start by providing an overview of the evolution of English hippiatric medicine from ancient and medieval times into the early modern period. The second section moves on to the structures of practice which include the astrological principles between preventative, remedial and surgical medicine for horses, followed by an in-depth discussion of how such knowledge was disseminated through the oral, manuscript and print culture.