A01=Perry Gauci
Author_Perry Gauci
Category=DNBH
Category=NHD
Category=NHTQ
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9780300166750
- Weight: 590g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 21 May 2013
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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This first-ever biography of William Beckford provides a unique look at eighteenth-century British history from the perspective of the colonies. Even in his own time, Beckford was seen as a metaphor for the dramatic changes occurring during this era. He was born in 1709 into a family of wealthy sugar planters living in Jamaica, when the colonies were still peripheral to Britain. By the time he died in 1770, the colonies loomed large and were considered the source of Britain’s growing global power.
Beckford grew his fortune in Jamaica, but he spent most of his adult life in London, where he was elected Lord Mayor twice. He was one of the few politicians to have experienced imperial growing pains on both sides of the Atlantic, and his life offers a riveting look at how the expanding empire challenged existing political, social, and cultural norms.
Perry Gauci is a fellow and tutor in history at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. His most recent book is Regulating the British Economy, 1660–1850. He lives in Oxford.
