Modern History

Russell M Lawson explores the thoughts and experiences of two Enlightenment thinkers during the American War of Independence through the letters of Ebenezer Hazard, postmaster of New York, and his friend Jeremy Belknap in New Hampshire. No jacket.

In this study, Weinstein considers the development of London's liberal political culture between the general election of 1832 and the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855. He offers a fresh interpretation of the city's political life, arguing that Whiggery was a potent force, exerting a 'powerful "negative influence" on the construction of early Victorian metropolitan radical identity'.

Witty, wealthy and beautiful, Catherine Tylney Long was the most eligible heiress in England. Courted by royalty, she chose instead to marry William Wellesley, the charming but feckless and dissolute nephew of the Duke of Wellington. Combining archival research and the readability of detective fiction, this history unravels the story of a scandalous marriage that delighted the press and cartoonists of the day, and culminated in financial ruin and a landmark court case.

'My whole life,' wrote Lord Dufferin in 1894, 'has been a series of surprises.' The Irish landowner became a bestselling travel writer on the publication of his Letters from High Latitudes in 1856, and went on to hold the two most powerful offices in the British Empire, Viceroy of India and Governor-General of Canada. Yet, as this biography – written with access to the family archive – recounts, his lavish lifestyle would lead to his downfall in a notorious financial scandal.

Basil William Douglas, Lord Daer (1763–1794), left an indelible impression on everyone he met, including the poet Robert Burns and the radical Thomas Paine. This first-ever biography charts the life of this far-sighted progressive politician, his immersion in Scottish Enlightenment ideas, and his experiences in Edinburgh, London and Paris against the turbulent backdrop of revolution and war. And, as the Scots and English reappraise their union, it shows the continuing relevance of Daer's political vision.

‘Elizabeth’, writes Lisa Hilton, ‘was happy to play on the conventions of gender when it suited her ‘weak and feeble’ woman’s body to do so’. In this biography, Lisa Hilton argues that Elizabeth’s upbringing, education and royal status effectively negated gender and the Queen saw herself as – and ruled as – a Machiavellian prince. This study of Elizabeth shifts the focus from her gender and sexuality to her statecraft and her view of England as a Renaissance state. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Henry Cockburn (1779–1854) was a judge of the Court of Session and a leading personality in 19th-century Edinburgh, best remembered now for his posthumous literary works, Memorials of His Time (1856), Journal (1874) and Circuit Journeys (1888). This selection of 180 letters written by Cockburn provides new information about his career as judge, Whig activist, family man and pioneer of building conservation. With introduction, notes and index.

Physician John Elliotson and his friend Thomas Wakley, founding editor of The Lancet, were well-known medical pioneers in Victorian London. Yet when Elliotson championed the new ‘science’ of mesmerism, which purported to dull surgical pain, their friendship – and Elliotson’s credibility – were severely tested. Against a backdrop of Victorian lecture theatres and hospital wards, the two distinguished men publicly clashed over a technique which, for all its successes and failures, is still little understood.