Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture, 1660–1780

Howard D. Weinbrot is the Ricardo Quintana Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and the William F. Vilas Research Professor Emeritus in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of several books, including Menippean Satire Reconsidered: From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century, also published by Johns Hopkins.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Groundwork of ChangeA Note on NotesPart I: Threats to the Species: Madness, Discontent, and the Danger of Dissolution1. Causation and Contexts of Hatred: Savage Beasts Mortal and Deadly2. Madness, Extirpation, and Defoe's Shortest Way withthe DissentersPart II: Taking the Cure and Improving the Species: Sermons, Compulsion, and Methodists3. The Thirtieth of January Sermon: From Exterminationto Inclusion4. "Compel Them to Come In," Luke 14:23: From Persecution toPersuasion; Against Augustinian Compulsion5. Adopt Men From All the Nations of the Earth: Equiano's ConversionPart III: Evolutionary Reversion: The Gordon Riots, Return to Rage, and Reinventing a Cure6. Déjà Vu All Over Again? The Gordon Riots; Bedlam Revisited, Restoration of Order, and a Trial on Trial7. A Very Near Thing: State Terrorism, the Fury of the Aggrieved, and Incompatibility with the Safety of Millions8. Coping, Repairing, and Dickens' Barnaby RudgeIllustrating EvolutionIndex

Each chapter is brilliant, informed by Weinbrot's astonishingly wide reading and ability to make the past come alive... As he has done before, Weinbrot makes serious intellectual history fun... Highly recommended. Choice Professor Weinbrot ranges wide and delves deep in this study, which could nostalgically be called intellectual history... Moreover, Weinbrot provides accurate and succinct historical summaries along the way. -- Robert G. Walker Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture is a formidable work of scholarship written by one of the period's sharpest critics. Its erudition is pronounced, its analysis acute... Digital Defoe Weinbrot's examination of the gradual evolution of English cultural perceptions of religious "others" makes an important contribution to eighteenth-century studies. The University of Chicago Press Mr. Weinbrot's study is an infinitely rewarding sourcebook for important eighteenth-century religious concepts (including passive obedience, the Thirtieth of January Sermon, or Augustinianism) and movements (such as Methodism). Without doubt, he offers a most impressive reconstruc- tion of the raging religious feuds. Moreover, his study of Defoe's monumental Shortest Way with the Dissenters is as careful as it is penetrating. His book is informed by his keen sense of injustice: its pages are suffused with his indignation about cruelties, such as the "state terrorism"... Scriblerian ... a watershed moment in our field. Notes and Queries