Research Catalog

Title

Oracles of empire : poetry, politics, and commerce in British America, 1690-1750 / David S. Shields.

Author

Shields, David S., 1951-

Publication

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Supplementary Content

• Contributor biographical information
• Publisher description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 295 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

This innovative look at previously neglected poetry in British America represents a major contribution to our understanding of early American culture. Spanning the period from the Glorious Revolution (1690) to the end of King George's War (1750), this study critically reconstitutes the literature of empire in the thirteen colonies, Canada, and the West Indies by investigating over 300 texts in mixed print and manuscript sources, including poems in pamphlets and newspapers. ... British America's poetry of empire was dominated by three issues: mercantilism's promise that civilization and wealth would be transmitted from London to the provinces; the debate over the extent of metropolitan prerogatives in law and commerce when they obtruded upon provincial rights and interests; and the argument that Britain's imperium pelagi was an ethical empire, because it depended upon the morality of trade, while the empires of Spain and France were immoral empires because they were grounded upon conquest. In discussing these issues, Shields provides a virtual anthology of poems long lost to students of American literature.-- Dust jacket.

Subject

• 1600-1799
• American poetry > Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 > History and criticism
• Political poetry, American > History and criticism
• Imperialism in literature
• Commerce in literature
• Colonies in literature
• American poetry > Colonial period
• Intellectual life
• Political poetry, American
• United States > Intellectual life > 18th century
• United States

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-281) and index.

Contents

Part One -- The British Empire and the Poetry of Commerce -- 1. The Literary Topology of Mercantilism -- 2. The Tide of Empire -- 3. The Material Redeemers -- 4. Staples -- Part Two -- The Paper Wars over the Prerogative -- 5. The Problem of the Prerogative -- 6. The Paper Wars in Massachusetts -- 7. The Spread of Boston Principles -- Part Three -- The Rhetoric of Imperial Animosity -- 8. Empire of Evil -- 9. Gallic Perfidy -- 10. The Tenuousness of Imperial Identity -- Notes -- Bibliography of Sources -- Index.

Call Number

JFE 90-7794

ISBN

• 0226752984
• 9780226752983

LCCN

90010836

OCLC

21196116

Author

Shields, David S., 1951-

Title

Oracles of empire : poetry, politics, and commerce in British America, 1690-1750 / David S. Shields.

Imprint

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-281) and index.

Connect to:

Table of contents

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

Chronological Term

1600-1799

Research Call Number

JFE 90-7794