The Historical Imagination in Early Modern Britain: History, Rhetoric, and Fiction, 1500–1800 (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)

This collection of essays by some of the most distinguished historians and literary scholars in the English-speaking world explores the overlap, interplay, and interaction between history and fiction in British imaginative and historical writing from the Tudor period to the Enlightenment. The historians discuss the questions of truth, fiction, and the contours of early modern historical culture, while the literary scholars consider some of the fictional aspects of history, and the historical aspects of fiction, in prose narratives of many sorts. The interests and inquiries of these learned, imaginative, and venturesome scholars cross at many points, casting significant light on and offering numerous insights into the problematic and interdisciplinary areas where 'history' and 'story' meet, interact, and sometimes compete. Despite the theoretical questions posed, the discussions primarily focus on concrete works, including those of Thomas More, John Foxe, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Edward Gibbon. Cover......Page 1 Frontmatter......Page 2 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 WOODROW WILSON CENTER SERIES......Page 14 1 - Introduction......Page 16 2 - Precept, example, and truth: Degory Wheare and the ars historica......Page 26 3 - Truth, lies, and fiction in sixteenth-century Protestant historiography......Page 52 4 - Thomas More and the English Renaissance: History and fiction in Utopia......Page 84 5 - Little Crosby and the horizons of early modern historical culture......Page 108 6 - Murder in Faversham: Holinshed's impertinent history......Page 148 7 - Foul, his wife, the mayor, and Foul's mare: The power of anecdote in Tudor historiography......Page 174 8 - Experience, truth, and natural history in early English gardening books......Page 194 9 - Thomas Hobbes's Machiavellian moments......Page 225 10 - The background of Hobbes's Behemoth......Page 258 11 - Leviathan, mythic history, and national historiography......Page 282 12 - Protesting fiction, constructing history......Page 313 13 - Adam Smith and the history of private life: Social and sentimental narratives in eighteenth-century historiography......Page 333 14 - Contemplative heroes and Gibbon's historical imagination......Page 358 Contributors......Page 376 Index......Page 378 Titles in the series......Page 390 Cover 1 Frontmatter 2 Contents 8 Preface 10 WOODROW WILSON CENTER SERIES 14 1 - Introduction 16 2 - Precept, example, and truth: Degory Wheare and the ars historica 26 3 - Truth, lies, and fiction in sixteenth-century Protestant historiography 52 4 - Thomas More and the English Renaissance: History and fiction in Utopia 84 5 - Little Crosby and the horizons of early modern historical culture 108 6 - Murder in Faversham: Holinshed's impertinent history 148 7 - Foul, his wife, the mayor, and Foul's mare: The power of anecdote in Tudor historiography 174 8 - Experience, truth, and natural history in early English gardening books 194 9 - Thomas Hobbes's Machiavellian moments 225 10 - The background of Hobbes's Behemoth 258 11 - Leviathan, mythic history, and national historiography 282 12 - Protesting fiction, constructing history 313 13 - Adam Smith and the history of private life: Social and sentimental narratives in eighteenth-century historiography 333 14 - Contemplative heroes and Gibbon's historical imagination 358 Contributors 376 Index 378 Titles in the series 390 9780521521239 Woodrow Wilson Center Press

These essays by some of the most distinguished historians and literary scholars in the English-speaking world explore the overlap, interplay, and interaction between supposedly truthful history and fact-based fiction in British writing from the Tudor period to the Enlightenment. Despite the many theoretical questions posed, the discussions primarily focus on concrete works, including those of Thomas More, John Foxe, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Edward Gibbon.

Some of the most distinguished historians and literary scholars in the English-speaking world explore the overlap, interplay, and interaction between history and fiction in British writing from the Tudor period to the Enlightenment, with the primary focus on writers such as Thomas More, John Foxe, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Edward Gibbon. "History" and "story" are derived from the same root, and they have converged again in modern times, especially through the recognition of their common dependence on imagination.