Persuasion and propaganda: monuments and the eighteenth-century British Empire

Abstract

"In the eighteenth century sugar planters, merchants, aristocrats, politicians, and governments erected hundreds of commemorative monuments throughout the British Empire as expressions of social status, personal dynasties, territorial occupation, and imperial ambitions. In a culture transformed by the rising merchant class, these monuments - inherently public and hopefully permanent - underscored the economic, political, and cultural complexities of the emerging empire." "Persuasion and Propaganda is the first study of these works of art within the framework of colonial politics and political culture. While examining the rise of the idea of the public in the modern world, Joan Coutu explores how "empire" was constantly being redefined. From private funeral monuments in the West Indies to works erected by the East India Company and the British Parliament, Coutu shows how the youthful British Empire saw itself and validated its mission through sculpture"--BOOK JACKET.

Contents

1. Introduction -- Pt. 1. Family empires -- 2. Display and dynasty -- 3. The colonial trade in monuments -- Pt. 2. Official empire -- 4. Heroic imagery? : the monument to Wolfe in Westminster Abbey -- 5. Precedents and parallels : the Grenville commissions -- Pt. 3. Empire secured? -- 6. Magnanimity? : the bust of George III in Montreal -- 7. Reassurances of liberty : public monuments in the American Colonies -- Pt. 4. Empire renewed -- 8. Reassurances of loyalty : public commissions in the West Indies -- 9. India : empire building as a moral imperative -- 10. Conclusion -- App. 1. Excerpt from the agreement between Joseph Wilton and William Young for the Ottley Monument, St. John's Church, Antigua, 21 August 1767 -- App. 2. Advice concerning a monument to Major General Wolfe -- App. 3. Correspondence of Charles Garth, Joseph Wilton, and the Committee of Correspondence of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina concerning the monument of William Pitt for Charleston, 1766-70 -- App. 4. Eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century monuments in North America and the British West Indies.