Description
Book SynopsisOne hundred fifty years ago, Thomas Carlyle was the intellectual gadfly whom many disagreed with but everyone read. Statesmen, philosophers, novelists, historians — anyone wrestling with the most vexed issues of modern life — had to come to grips with his writings. The book reassesses Carlyle for a new generation in no less serious circumstances. Readers rediscover a Carlyle who challenges an increasingly self-absorbed society, rails against the excesses of Capitalist greed, teaches "Captains of Industry" to embrace a new kind of leadership, restores a meaningful connection to the past, and draws our gaze to genuine heroism. This volume also celebrates the breadth of Carlyle's thoughts, along with that of Jane Welsh Carlyle, his wife and fellow intellectual traveler, covering topics from political philosophy and cultural critique, to education, historiography, biography, and the vagaries of editing. Thomas Carlyle truly emerges "resartus," or re-tailored, ready to speak with renewed hope to the weighty concerns of the present time.
Trade ReviewThe editor’s introduction offers a useful contextualization of Carlyle’s work in relation to key debates and developments regarding historical and political discourse in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The task of current Carlyle scholarship, according to the editors, is to “examine more carefully the complexities, challenges, and depths” of Carlyle’s work. The essays in the volume succeed in this reappraisal quite well. This is a strong collection of essays on the whole, and is particularly valuable for the way it opens up new directions for Carlyle studies. I certainly recommend the volume to those interested in exploring the terrain of important new work on Carlyle. * Victorian Studies *
