England in 1819: The Politics of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism

By James Chandler

Book Overview

Many of the writers from 1819, argues James Chandler, were acutely aware not only of their writing's place in history, but also of its place as history--a realization of a literary "spirit of the age" that resonates strongly with the current "return to history" in literary studies. Chandler explores the ties between Romantic and contemporary historicism and offers a series of cases of his own built around key texts from 1819.

"1819? At first sight, it might not seem a 'hot date'; but as James Chandler argues in his powerful book, it would be a mistake to overlook a year of such exceptional political conflagration and literary pyrotechnics in British history. Chandler's study is a wide-ranging, enormously ambitious, densely packed, closely argued work."--John Brewer, New Republic

"The book's largest argument, and the source of its considerable revelations, is that late twentieth-century practices of cultural history-writing have their roots in the peculiar Romantic historicism born in post-Waterloo Britain."--Jon Klancher, Times Literary Supplement

"A monumental work of scholarship."--Terry Eagleton, The Independent

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226101088
• ISBN13: 9780226101088
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 606 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

History for Historians not Historical Tourists

In his book, Chandler offers a trenchant meditation on history. He argues, in essence, that works of literature don't merely reflect history, but sometimes seek to make it, and (more rarely still) sometimes succeed in doing so. His year of focus was one of immense political turmoil and of literary works that seemed sometimes to float above the ether. Chandler's goal is to draw the two together. Readers who dislike Chandler's book seem to have been thrown off their guard by its title -- "England in 1819" -- which in its simple, declarative style suggests a work of "historical tourism" along the lines of 'What Charles Dickens Ate and What Jane Austen Wore.' While I appreciate the distress of readers who thought they were getting a compendium of information on the average weight, height, and life-expectancy of your average Georgian citizen, the shameless racism displayed in some of the reviews below simply beggars comprehension. What on earth does the author's race have to do with the caliber of his scholarship? What does his gender have to do with it either? Ad hominem attacks on an author's race or gender are neither "post colonial" or "feminist". Such bigotry is really unbecoming.

Best book of its type

If you are looking for a book on the Romantic period and the creation of modernity, full of trendy parrot squawks from the various "schools" of criticism diminishing the minds of tenure-hungry, vindictive graduate students, then do not even think of reading Chandler's masterpiece. This book, by a prodigal U. of Chicago professor, focuses the author's enormous intelligence and rare passion upon what seems to be his several lifetimes of scholarship and reading. It is, furthermore, beautifully written, something its confused detractors probably feel makes it only all the more valueless. If your mind is not entirely shut down by arrogance, you will treasure this book's lessons.