Political

Life Insurance and the War of Independence

Even by the standards of the eighteenth century — a period when it was still possible to be the master of more arts than one — Richard Price was conspicuous for the vast variety of his interests. Nicholas Lane describes how they embraced divinity, philosophy, mathematics, life assurance, the problems of population, the cause of the American Colonists and the revolutionary movement in France.

The Monroe Doctrine

George Washington had warned the American people against “the insidious wiles of foreign influence.” President Monroe, writes Arnold Whitridge, further developed “the thesis of non-entanglement.”

Radical Jack: John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham

Proud, wayward, immensely rich, with romantic good looks and an explosive temper, John Lambton was one of those natural rebels who turn their rebellious energies to constructive purposes. Both at home and abroad, writes George Woodcock, he became a powerful exponent of the early nineteenth-century liberal spirit.

French Canada After 1759

For two hundred years, writes George Woodcock, French Canadians have been battling to preserve their national and cultural identity.

A More Perfect Union

On May 14th, 1787, a Convention met in Philadelphia to draw up the articles of “ a more perfect union”. Alexander Winston describes how the problem was “government or anarchy”.

The XYZ Affair

Twenty years after the Declaration of Independence, writes Louis C. Kleber, the Americans, now at peace with Britain, were involved in tortuous negotiations with the Directory of the French Republic.