Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century
by Jenny Davidson
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"The Enlightenment commitment to reason naturally gave rise to a belief in the perfectibility of man. Influenced by John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many eighteenth-century writers argued that the proper education and upbringing & -breeding & -could make any man a member of the cultural elite. Yet even in this egalitarian environment, the concept of breeding remained tied to theories of blood lineage, caste distinction, and biological difference. Turning to the works of Locke, Rousseau, show more Swift, Defoe, and other giants of the British Enlightenment, Jenny Davidson revives the debates that raged over the husbandry of human nature and highlights their critical impact on the development of eugenics, the emergence of fears about biological determinism, and the history of the language itself. Combining rich historical research with a keen sense of story, she links explanations for the physical resemblance between parents and children to larger arguments about culture and society and shows how the threads of this compelling conversation reveal the character of a century. A remarkable intellectual history, Breedingnot only recasts the fundamental concerns of the Enlightenment but also uncovers the seeds of thought that bloomed into contemporary notions of human perfectibility."--Jacket. show lessTags
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- Literature Studies and Criticism, Fiction and Literature, Science & Nature, Philosophy
- DDC/MDS
- 809.93353 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism History, description, critical appraisal of more than two literatures Literature displaying specific features, miscellaneous writings Literature displaying other aspects Literature dealing with specific themes and subjects Humanity Human psychological and moral qualities
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- PR448 .B74 .D38 — Language and Literature English English Literature By period Modern 18th century
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