Tag: Eighteenth Century
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The Jewels that Killed the Queen: The French Royal Necklace Affair

Kate Taylor explores the theft of a missing necklace which caused a scandal in eighteenth-century France, fuelling public distaste towards Marie Antoinette.
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Visuality, Materiality, and Eighteenth-Century Samplers

Molly Marsella explores eighteenth-century American samplers, discussing how the visuality and materiality of these pieces has been viewed.
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A Trip Down Gin Lane: An Enquiry into British Boozing

Alcohol consumption is central to British national self-conception and military culture. Olivia Hiskett traces the contentious moral history of alcohol from the eighteenth century to the present.
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A Brief History of the Medieval Revival

As industrialisation swelled in the Western world, societies looked towards the medieval past as a means of legitimising their history. Megan Crutchley explores the forms this took in the US and UK, and the manner in which it was embedded in white elitism.
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Investigating Female Liberation Inside the Eighteenth-Century British Masquerade

Written by Boryana Ivanova. The masquerade ball carries a long and varied history, but how did the eighteenth century masquerade become imagined places of pleasure, excess and female liberation?
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Dido Elizabeth Belle, and the mysteries behind the painting at Scone Palace

Written by Sophie Whitehead. The portrait of Lady Elizabeth and Dido Belle has fascinated historians and allowed us a glimpse into Black History in the eighteenth century. But who was she? And how has she been understood by historians and art critics since the painting’s production?
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Editing the Jamaica Reader: A Conversation with Professor Diana Paton and Professor Matthew Smith

Professor Diana Paton and Professor Matthew Smith sit down with Retrospect’s EIC, Jamie Gemmell, to discuss their new volume: The Jamaica Reader: History, Culture, Politics.
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Redefining Humanity: Political Philosophy in African British Anti-Slavery Literature

Written by Charlie Horlick. Ottobah Cugoano’s writing has been typically framed as a slave narrative, yet it is perhaps more than that. Part political economy, part meditation on morality, it should be integrated into the canon of eighteenth-century philosophy.
