The Execution of Admiral John Byng as a Microhistory of Eighteenth-Century Britain
The Execution of Admiral John Byng as a Microhistory of Eighteenth-Century Britain

Author: Joseph J. Krulder

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-04-26

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1000381188

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

According to Voltaire's Candide, Admiral John Byng's 1757 execution went forward to 'encourage the others'. Of course, the story is more complicated. This microhistorical account upon a macro-event presents an updated, revisionist, and detailed account of a dark chapter in British naval history. Asking 'what was Britain like the moment Byng returned to Portsmouth after the Battle of Minorca (1756)?' not only returns a glimpse of mid-eighteenth century Britain but provides a deeper understanding of how a wartime admiral, the son of a peer, of some wealth, a once colonial governor, and sitting member of parliament came to be scapegoated and then executed for the failings of others. This manuscript presents a cultural, social, and political dive into Britain at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. Part 1 focuses on ballad, newspaper, and prize culture. Part 2 makes a turn towards the social where religion, morality, rioting, and disease play into the Byng saga. Admiral Byng's record during the 1755 Channel Campaign is explored, as is the Mediterranean context of the Seven Years' War, troubles elsewhere in the empire, and then the politics behind Byng's trial and execution.

Masculinity, Militarism and Eighteenth-Century Culture, 1689–1815
Masculinity, Militarism and Eighteenth-Century Culture, 1689–1815

Author: Julia Banister

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-04-26

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1108173705

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates the figure of the military man in the long eighteenth century in order to explore how ideas about militarism served as vehicles for conceptualizations of masculinity. Bringing together representations of military men and accounts of court martial proceedings, this book examines eighteenth-century arguments about masculinity and those that appealed to the 'naturally' sexed body and construed masculinity as social construction and performance. Julia Banister's discussion draws on a range of printed materials, including canonical literary and philosophical texts by David Hume, Adam Smith, Horace Walpole and Jane Austen, and texts relating to the naval trials of, amongst others, Admiral John Byng. By mapping eighteenth-century ideas about militarism, including professionalism and heroism, alongside broader cultural concerns with politeness, sensibility, the Gothic past and celebrity, Julia Banister reveals how ideas about masculinity and militarism were shaped by and within eighteenth-century culture.

Arts and Arms
Arts and Arms

Author: M. John Cardwell

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780719066184

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Protagonists featured include: William Pitt; Henry Fox; the Duke of Newcastle; Lord Bute; George II and III; and Britain's ally Frederick II of Prussia. By placing literary works in a close political context they test the accuracy of the information conveyed against the correspondence and memoirs of politicians and parliamentary debates. The degree to which literature not only recorded, but also helped to shape political attitudes, is explored by its interaction with these and other expressions of opinion, such as popular protest and extra-parliamentary initiatives.

Masculinity and the Other
Masculinity and the Other

Author: Heather Ellis

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2009-01-14

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1443803952

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Histories of masculinity have generally examined both social ideologies of masculinity and subjective male identities within frameworks that define them against the feminine. Yet historians and sociologists have increasingly argued that men have been and continue to be defined both socially and subjectively as much by their relations to other men as in relation to women. This collection brings together the work of scholars of masculinities working in a variety of fields, including literature, history and art history, to examine some of the forms of 'otherness' against which ideas of masculinity have been defined throughout history. The collection reflects the current breadth of scholarship relating to the study of masculine alterity. While the subjects addressed are largely historical, the time span covered is broad and the disciplinary approaches to the subject matter are equally wide-ranging. A huge variety of men, masculine behaviours and definitions of masculinity are considered in an exciting and invigorating collection that showcases both established academics and emerging scholars in the field.