Defoe's Tour and Early Modern Britain : Panorama of the Nation

Authoritative yet accessible, this is the first-ever comprehensive account of a true landmark in eighteenth-century travel writing. Daniel Defoe's Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain is constantly cited even now by students in practically every branch of history, and there are few topics essential to our understanding of the nation in the early modern period that do not show up in its pages. Historians since the late nineteenth century have looked to the Tour as one of the richest and most insightful works describing Britain in the lead-up to the Industrial Revolution, and critics and biographers of Defoe have regularly named it as among his most characteristic and central works. Indispensable for virtually any interdisciplinary approach to the nation in this period, this new study provides wide-reaching, up-to-date analysis of the content of the Tour, and of its methods, sources, form, and vast historical significance. Cover Half-title page Frontispiece Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Maps List of Tables List of Abbreviations Map Introduction Part 1 Form and Function Chapter 1 The Identity of Britain Chapter 2 Embedding and Embodying the Nation: Textual Practices in the Tour Chapter 3 The Epic Strain Chapter 4 The Shape of the Nation Part 2 Time Chapter 5 The Role of the Tour in the Historiography of Early Modern Britain Chapter 6 The Jacobite Rising in the Tour: Preventing the Ruin of Scotland Chapter 7 The Impact of the Bubble Chapter 8 Local Proverbs and Folk Wisdom Part 3 Place Chapter 9 The Uses of Topography Chapter 10 Road-testing the First Turnpikes: Defoe’s Account of English Highways Chapter 11 Defoe on Bristol: The Text with an Introduction and Annotation Chapter 12 Atlas Maritimus: The Case for Defoe’s Authorship Notes Select Bibliography General Index Index of Places This first comprehensive account of Daniel Defoe's Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain explores the content, sources, form, and historical significance of one of the foremost books written about Britain during the eighteenth century. Pat Rogers' study offers fresh interdisciplinary insight for both new readers and Defoe students.