Overview

This book reimagines the history of knowledge in 18th-century Britain by exploring how ideas were transmitted and diffused across generations and disciplines. Drawing on innovative digital tools, it uncovers collective patterns in the language of science, philosophy and commerce, revealing how concepts such as ‘system’, ‘sensibility’ and ‘volition’ were shaped and shared by communities rather than individuals. The study examines the commodification of knowledge, tracing its connections with the rise of capitalism and the emergence of knowledge as a storable, transferable asset. By distinguishing between the optimistic project of transmission to posterity and the anxieties surrounding the diffusion of knowledge, this book illuminates the political, social and economic stakes of Enlightenment thought. Blending literary analysis, intellectual history, and digital humanities, it offers new perspectives for scholars and general readers on how knowledge structures persist and evolve, and why their movement matters for modernity.

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9781032756349

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John Regan is Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research interests fall into two main areas. Firstly, he is interested in the new forms of knowledge that might be discovered or indeed wrought by digital technology. Secondly, he has published extensively in 18th-century literature and aesthetics. He is the author of Poetry and the Idea of Progress, 1760–1790 (2018) and has co-edited Rethinking British Romantic History 1770–1845 (2014). In October 2023, he published his second monograph entitled Semantic Change and Collective Knowledge in 18th Century Britain. This is a digital enquiry into the forms of knowledge embodied in historical corpora and only made visible using digital tools. He is currently funded by the British Academy on a two-year project investigating the United Nations’ corpus.

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