Georgian History

In September 1769, 3,000 people descended on Stratford-upon-Avon to celebrate the artistic legacy of the town's most famous son, William Shakespeare. Attendees included the rich and powerful, the fashionable and the curious, eligible ladies and fortune hunters, and a horde of journalists and profiteers. For three days, they paraded through garlanded streets, listened to songs and oratorios, and enjoyed masked balls. It was a unique cultural moment - a coronation elevating Shakespeare to the throne of genius. Except it was a disaster....

Charles, first marquis of Cornwallis (1738-1805), was a leading figure in late 18th-century Britain. His career spanned the American War of Independence, Irish Union, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the building of the Second British Empire in India - and he has long been associated with the unacceptable face of Britain's colonial past. In this vivid new biography, Richard Middleton shows that this portrait is far from accurate. Cornwallis emerges as a reformer who had deep empathy for those under his authority and was clear about his obligation to govern justly.

A Southern Underground Railroad constitutes a powerful counter-narrative in American history, a tale of how enslaved men and women found freedom and human dignity not in Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" but outside the expanding boundaries of the United States.

Charles Dickens, considered one of the greatest English authors of all time, wrote the essay "Sunday Under Three Heads" in 1836. It is a short piece expressing Charles Dickens' opinion on a bill being presented in the British Parliament which was meant to restrict pleasurable pursuits on Sundays. Dickens explains how this proposed act would negatively affect the poor people of Britain. Besides stating his opinion with eloquence, the essay provides a good description of life on an English Sunday in the early 19th century.

Il Settecento inglese è un periodo di relativa stabilità politica ma di grande sviluppo economico e finanziario per l'isola. Al consolidamento delle trasformazioni in agricoltura e all'avvio della rivoluzione industriale corrispose un notevole incremento dei traffici commerciali. Il Regno Unito (l'unione con la Scozia è del 1707) s'avviò a diventare la prima grande potenza capitalistica mondiale sancita anche dalla fondazione della Banca d'Inghilterra (1694).

Horatio Nelson can be seen as one of the most courageous, strategic, and valiant British generals in history. His tactics in the Navy led their empire to glorious victories in the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. During the wars against Napoleon, the Scandinavians, and in the West Indies, he was an exemplary leader, strategist, and combatant. The British Empire stretched all the way from the Caribbean to Egypt and beyond. Needless to say, much help was needed in various areas in the world.