| This thesis examines the practice of politics in mid-eighteenth century England. Treating the loss of Minorca to the French in 1756 as a spectacle, as initially defined by Pierre Nora, it mines the reaction of the primary actors in the crisis, notably the government, the opposition and the press, for clues on the quotidian practice of politics. As such, it underscores the precariousness of aristocratic hegemony and its maintenance only through careful negotiation and alliance building in a broader, politically aware public arena, as initially suggested by Edward Thompson and refined by his adherents. It subsequently recognizes the importance of public opinion to the maintenance of social equilibrium and it charts efforts to define public space and influence public opinion by examining the history and construction of the central political discourses, notably those concerned with gender and good governance. In this capacity, it seeks to join a developing historiographical trend that combines the disparate methodologies of cultural Marxism and postmodernism to further explicate English political culture in the eighteenth century. |
