Mammon's Music: Literature and Economics in the Age of MiltonYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 336 pages The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. In this ambitious book, Blair Hoxby explores what that economic transformation meant to the century’s greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. Hoxby places Milton’s work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England’s economic history between 1601 and 1724. Literary history swerved in this period, Hoxby demonstrates, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. Hoxby shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton’s prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 26
Page 1
... culture and the literature it produced.1 This book tells the story of what that revolution , spanning the decades from 1630 to 1700 , meant both to the century's greatest poet and to the literary tradition in which he worked . I focus ...
... culture and the literature it produced.1 This book tells the story of what that revolution , spanning the decades from 1630 to 1700 , meant both to the century's greatest poet and to the literary tradition in which he worked . I focus ...
Page 5
... cultural authority in part because it hailed from a discipline in the making . It would not be until the beginning of the eighteenth century that John Cary could de- clare complacently , “ Trade has its principles as other sciences have ...
... cultural authority in part because it hailed from a discipline in the making . It would not be until the beginning of the eighteenth century that John Cary could de- clare complacently , “ Trade has its principles as other sciences have ...
Page 6
... cultural authority from trade's status as an emerging discipline , it acquired its urgency by dint of its very permeability . It was a field of contestation whose terms and ar- guments might enter , or conversely be inflected by ...
... cultural authority from trade's status as an emerging discipline , it acquired its urgency by dint of its very permeability . It was a field of contestation whose terms and ar- guments might enter , or conversely be inflected by ...
Page 8
... culture or a series of linguistic deferrals confined to the discursive domain has promoted “ a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of histories . " 31 In exploring the " historical specificity , the ...
... culture or a series of linguistic deferrals confined to the discursive domain has promoted “ a reciprocal concern with the historicity of texts and the textuality of histories . " 31 In exploring the " historical specificity , the ...
Page 9
... culture , share a single deep structure or mentality ; much less do I assume that an entire society is produced by certain structures of domi- nation , so that even forces of apparent opposition turn out to be mere " illusory ...
... culture , share a single deep structure or mentality ; much less do I assume that an entire society is produced by certain structures of domi- nation , so that even forces of apparent opposition turn out to be mere " illusory ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
57 | |
Part Three Force Commerce and Empire | 125 |
Part Four The Meaning of Work | 201 |
Conclusion | 233 |
Abbreviations | 253 |
Notes | 255 |
Index | 311 |
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Amboyna Amsterdam Annus Mirabilis arch Areopagitica argued arguments Benjamin Worsley Book Cambridge University Press century chap chapter Charles Davenant Charles II Charles II's City claim commercial common Commonwealth Comus Comus's contemporary Court Crown Davenant Davenant's discourse Dryden Dutch early Stuarts East India Company economic empire England English Englishmen entrepôt epic force and commerce free trade George Wither Gerbier ideal Indies industry interest James John king labor liberty lines London Lord Masque merchants Milton monarchy monopolists monopoly nation natural naval nomic Oxford pamphlet panegyrics Paradise Lost Parliament Philistines poem poem's poets policies political Princeton Puritan Readie and Easie reformers religious republicans Restoration Revolution royal entry Royalist Rump Rump's Samson Agonistes Satan Second Anglo-Dutch Second Anglo-Dutch War ships Sir William slavery slaves subjects suggest texts thir Third Anglo-Dutch War Thomas tion Towerson tracts tradition truth United Provinces verse vision vols Waller wealth