18th Century

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare’s Romans: Politics and Ethics in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus

What is the context for Shakespeare’s Roman plays? What were his sources? Why did classical Rome capture the interest of people in Renaissance England?

Hana Layson with Amelia Zurcher, revised by Dr. William Casey Caldwell
October 17, 2012

18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Anti-Statism in U.S. History

What reasons do writers and politicians give for protesting the authority of the federal government? Why do they perceive the State as a threat? How has anti-statist thought changed over time?

Hana Layson with James T. Sparrow
June 26, 2012

17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko: Slavery and Race in the Atlantic World

How does Behn’s novel Oroonoko compare to other representations of race, slavery, and colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

Hana Layson with Amelia Zurcher
May 14, 2012

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Utopias of the European Renaissance

What is the historical and literary context for Shakespeare’s representation of Prospero’s island and its inhabitants? How did Renaissance writers and artists portray the European exploration of the Americas? How did that exploration inspire their visions of an ideal society?

Hana Layson with Kasey Evans
May 14, 2012