Genius Fan

  • Eighteenth Century as Seen by its Inhabitants

    Eighteenth Century as Seen by its Inhabitants

    Our imaginations are rendering machines of infinite capacity. We can conjure anything we want in our mind’s eye and, for the moment anyway, only we can tap into them. But don’t rely just on the text in your favourite book to fuel your Eighteenth century day dreams, get creative and…

  • Never Mind the History, They’re My Friends

    Never Mind the History, They’re My Friends

    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…

  • ‘Discovery’: The Best Way to Learn History

    ‘Discovery’: The Best Way to Learn History

    One of the many pleasures in learning about history and times past is ‘discovery’. By this I mean the process by which a person follows their interest and simply finds things out. I expect everyone has experienced that process. You can accumulate a great deal of knowledge on a subject…

  • Oliver Goldsmith Spent Johnson’s Rent Money on Madeira

    Oliver Goldsmith Spent Johnson’s Rent Money on Madeira

    One morning in 1762, the soon-to-be-famous Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith, was woken by an urgent rapping at the door of his London lodgings. Oliver Goldsmith was bad with money “Knock, knock!” Upon opening up, there was his landlady, threatening to bring the bailiffs unless he settle his many weeks of…

  • Bailyn’s Voyagers to the West

    Bailyn’s Voyagers to the West

    Let me direct you to a book illustration that transports me back in time to the Eighteenth century in a way few others do. Go to Bernard Bailyn’s 1986 book “Voyagers to the West: Emigration from Britain to America on the Eve of the Revolution”.

  • Samuel Johnson’s Tour of Scotland – Anniversary

    Samuel Johnson’s Tour of Scotland – Anniversary

    It’s 250 years ago this year that the Eighteenth century’s literary celebrity Samuel Johnson published his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, an account of a three-month tour he made there in 1773 with his great friend James Boswell. It was actually published on 18 January 1775, and that…

  • Become a Fan of Eighteenth Century Genius

    Become a Fan of Eighteenth Century Genius

    Genius Fan is a portal to the Age of Genius: that’s 1700-1799, the Mighty Eighteenth century, the Enlightenment. Bow down before its accomplishments and tremble at the potency of its ideas…hiding under the table will not protect you from its impact. You will only benefit. This was an age when…