The Culture of the Seven Years' War: Empire, Identity, and the Arts in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) was the decisive conflict of the eighteenth century – Winston Churchill called it the first “world war” – and the clash which forever changed the course of North American history. Yet compared with other momentous conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars or the First World War, the cultural impact of the Seven Years’ War remains woefully understudied. The Culture of the Seven Years’ War is the first collection of essays to take a broad interdisciplinary and multinational approach to this important global conflict. Rather than focusing exclusively on political, diplomatic, or military issues, this collection examines the impact of representation, identity, and conceptions and experiences of empire. With essays by notable scholars that address the war’s impact in Europe and the Atlantic world, this volume is sure to become essential reading for those interested in the relationship between war, culture, and the arts.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction – Shaun Regan (Queen’s University Belfast, Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature) and Frans de Bruyn (University of Ottawa, English) I. The Experience of Empire in the Seven Years’ War 1. From Vernon to Wolfe: Empire and Identity in the British Atlantic World of the Mid-Eighteenth Century – Nicholas Rogers (York University, History) 2. 1759: Year of Decision? – Fred Anderson (University of Colorado, Boulder, History) 3. Colonial Disease, Translation, and Enlightenment: Franco-British Medicine and the Seven Years’ War – Erica Charters (University of Oxford, History of Medicine) 4. “Under His Majesty’s Protection”: The Meaning of the Conquest for the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada – Alain Beaulieu (UniversitÉ du QuÉbec À MontrÉal, History) II. Imagining Conflict: Literature and the War 5. Paper Wars: Literature and/as Conflict during the Seven Years’ War – Thomas Keymer (University of Toronto, English) 6. Shakespeare, Voltaire, and the Seven Years’ War: Literary Criticism as Cultural Battlefield – Frans de Bruyn 7. “What d’ye call him, Tierconneldrago…”: Oliver Goldsmith and the Seven Years’ War – Michael J. Griffin (University of Limerick, English) III. Individuals and Identities: Status, Gender, and Race 8. The View from St. James’s Palace in 1759: A Court Perspective on the Annus Mirabilis – Nigel Aston (University of Leeds, English) 9. “Unfit to Serve”: Honour, Masculinity, and the Fate of Lord George Sackville – Robert W. Jones (University of Leeds, English) 10. Olaudah Equiano and the Seven Years’ War: Slavery, Service, and the Sea – Shaun Regan IV. Empire and the Arts 11. Setting the Empire in Stone: Commemorating Wolfe in the Gardens at Stowe – Joan Coutu (University of Waterloo, Art History) 12. George Stubbs’s The Zebra and the Spectacle of Fine Art at the End of the Seven Years’ War – Douglas Fordham (University of Virginia, Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century European Art) 13. Facing Past and Future Empires: Joshua Reynolds’s Portraits of Augustus Keppel – Daniel O’Quinn (University of Guelph, English) List of Contributors Index

About the Author :
Frans De Bruyn is Professor of English and Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa. Shaun Regan is Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature at Queen’s University Belfast.

Review :
‘This handsome collection captures both the uncertainty prior to and the triumphalism after the annus mirabulis of 1759.’ - Daniel O'Quinn (Studies in English Literature vol 55:03:2015) ‘This excellent collection not only throws valuable light on the period of Seven Years War but also offers a model that is appropriate for other periods…. Well produced and handsomely illustrated.’ - Jeremy Black (Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies; vol 39:01:2016)