Restoration and Revolution
The year 1688 is a turning point in English culture, and one from which can be dated numerous distinctively ‘modern’ notions of truth, property and political order. The texts assembled in this collection, originally published in 1986, focus on this intellectual adjustment from five related perspectives: from the traditions of social thought, philosophical thought, Anglicanism and royalism, latitudinarianism and the whig tradition, and the dissenting/radical/quietist milieu. The texts highlight not only the views that prevailed (Halifax and Locke), but those that failed (Dryden and Temple) and those that were reduced to marginality (Baxter). The substantial introduction by the editor brings out key themes such as the shifting notion of property and the related themes of inheritance, education and marriage, as well as the uneasy intellectual alliances of the period.
William Myers retired as Professor of English Literature in 2004, having taught for most of his life in the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester, as well as lecturing in half a dozen universities in the United States, His interests and published works extend from Milton to Waugh and reflect his interest in theology, philosophy and science as well as in literature. He was involved in Adult Education throughout his career, and deplores its current decline in the UK. After his retirement he was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, but is no longer in active ministry.