Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law

by E. P. Thompson

Overview

Witness Against the Beast is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary study in which the renowned social historian E.P. Thompson contends that most of the assumptions scholars have made about William Blake are misleading and unfounded. Brilliantly reexamining Blake's cultural milieu and intellectual background, Thompson detects in Blake's poetry a repeated call to resist the usury and commercialism of the “Antichrist” embodied by contemporary society—to “witness against the beast.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620972144
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	20 MB
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About the Author

E.P. Thompson (1924-1993) was one of England's foremost historians and social critics. His books include Customs in Common, Witness Against the Beast, Making History, The Romantics, and The Essential E.P. Thompson (all published by The New Press), as well as The Making of the English Working Class.

Table of Contents

Foreword Christopher Hill; Introduction;

Part I. Inheritance:

1. Works or faith?;
2. Antinomianisms;
3. The 'Ranting' impulse;
4. The polite witness;
5. Radical dissent;
6. A peculiar people;
7. Anti-hegemony; Appendix

1. The Muggletonian archive; Appendix
2. William Blake's mother;

Part II. Human Images: Introduction;
8. The new Jerusalem Church;
9. 'The Divine Image';
10. From innocence to experience;
11. 'London';
12. 'The Human Abstract';
13. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

The late historian and social critic E.P. Thompson, author of the seminal social history, The Making of the English Working Class, dons the cap of literary critic to argue that Blake's most important influences were not neoplatonism or Thomas Paine, but a radical Christian tradition that opposed and inverted the values of mainstream religion and learning--the mainstream that later adopted Blake as a canonical author. Includes 20 b&w plates. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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