Genius Fan

In a previous post I mentioned the pleasure of ‘discovery’ when learning about a subject. It’s an interest-driven process unhindered by formality or academic structure (at least for me it is), and that’s one of the reasons it’s so enjoyable to learn through discovery. I’ve been learning about the 18th century in that way and have picked up some in-depth knowledge of James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, George III, the Enlightenment, literature, customs, London, Scotland and a whole bunch of other topics. So with that in mind I thought I’d see what structured learning of the Eighteenth century consisted of, what are the themes that people studying that period would learn about. I bought the small Eighteenth-Century Britain edition in the A Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press.

It’s not a very accessible book for a learner like myself. There’s no ‘made-easy’ introduction to the Eighteenth century, no ‘big’ picture, the equivalent of a cinematic establishing shot. Not at all, it just launches straight into Chapter 1: Revolution and its Repercussions, a dense account of the period’s Seventeenth century foundations. Having trudged through the first six pages, I made the decision to not read any further. This is the kind of material that I can’t get into. I’m left with a sense that this way of presenting history is all about causes; this happened and then that led to this and so on. Myself, I know a little about the topics, but I don’t recognise how this book deals with them. I don’t think of topics like politics, war and peace, rebellion and reform, crime, industry, religion, transport, discontent, poverty, recreation, literacy, cultural trends etc. What I know about these topics I’ve picked up in learning about people and personalities from that period. I think about these characters (James Boswell, Samuel Johnson and dozens of other people) throughout the course of my day, and they’ve become something akin to friends. I want to spend time in their company. If, along the way, I learn about the Rockingham government, the Whig ascendancy, the Gordon Riots and all that kind of…well then that’s a bonus.

Notes
Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction, Paul Langford (2000)