Political Vanity

Political Vanity aims to illuminate the central debates over the historical, moral, and political legitimacy of market capitalism as though still profoundly theological in character. This theological sensitivity is achieved by keeping conversation with central theorists of the Scottish Enlightenment, in particular the philosopher and sociologist Adam Ferguson. Ferguson was a contemporary of Hume and Smith, and actively questioned many of the pillars of early capitalism on theological grounds.

Explores how Vanity Fair transformed from its Puritan origins as an emblem of sin into a modern celebration of hedonism.

What role does 'vanity' play in the lives of 21st century subjects? Exploring a range of fields including public health, information technology, media studies and feminist approaches to the body and beauty, this book offers a broad analysis of how 'vanity' shapes contemporary Western societies and its understandings of selfhood.

Poetry and Sovereignty in the English Revolution presents a new interpretation of the poetry of the English revolution. It focuses on royalist poets who left their cause behind following the abolition of the monarchy, exploring how they re-imagined the traditional language of allegiance in newly secular, artificial, and absolutist ways. Following the execution of Charles I in 1649 royalists who had sided with the King were left with a significant vacuum to fill. Poetry and Sovereignty in the English Revolution charts the poetry of Andrew Marvell, Edmund Waller, John Dryden, William Davenant, Abraham Cowley, and Margaret Cavendish amongst others in this period. It examines the poets' close acquaintance with Thomas Hobbes, offering new readings of the reception and adaptation of Hobbes's ideas in contemporary poetry. A final chapter traces how the poets survived the restoration of the Stuart monarchy, showing how they continued to apply their ideas in the heroic drama of the 1660s. Poetry and Sovereigniy in the English Revolution builds on recent work in both literary criticism and the history of political thought to contextualize royalist poets within a distinctive strain of absolutism inflected by reason of state, neostoicism, scepticism, and anticlericalism. It demonstrates a vivid poetic effort to imagine the expanded state delivered by the English Revolution.