The Unthinkable Swift: Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of England Man

No major figure of the English Augustan period has generated stronger and more contradictory views than Jonathan Swift. Scourge of the Whig ascendancy in his own day, vilified by the Victorians, celebrated by Yeats, he has in recent years become a significant bone of contention for prominent figures on the left like E.P. Thompson and Perry Anderson.

In this highly original and subtle new study, Warren Montag situates Swift in relation to the ideological and political currents of the late sev...