The Great Polemicist
Defoe’s Pamphlets and Tracts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23625249 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey Hopes (Université d'Orléans, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Pages | 108-124 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-18 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Oxford Handbook of Daniel Defoe (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198827177.013.6 |
| OpenAlex | W4389887424 |
| ISBN | 9780198827177 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
This chapter analyses Daniel Defoe’s pamphlets and tracts. It explores his contributions to intersecting political and religious debate during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, showing that he made his name as a radical Whig and Dissenter in the wake of the 1688 Revolution, though he was also an analyst of the emergent party system and displayed ambivalence towards his co-religionists, as in his contributions to debates over occasional conformity. It then turns to trade and finance, showing Defoe’s support for strong British trade and his critical treatment of high finance, especially in the wake of the South Sea Bubble (1720). Defoe’s occasional writings extend to foreign affairs, where his writings on European diplomacy and warfare were motivated by his patriotic promotion of British strength. Defoe also produced tracts on a succession of moral and social themes, which like all of his pamphlets demonstrate his verve and versatility.
Ambivalence · Art · Diplomacy · Literature · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
|---|