B. Dolan

Exploring European Frontiers: British Travellers in the Age of Enlightenment B. Dolan 2000 edition

The explorations of eighteenth-century British travelers to the "European frontiers" were often geared to define the cultural, political and historical boundaries of "European civilization." In an age when political revolutions shocked nations into reassessing what separated the civilized from the barbaric, how did literary travelers contemplate the characteristics of their continental neighbors? Focusing on the writings of British travelers, we see how a new view of Europe was created, one that attempted to define'modern Europe against a yet unenlightened Europe.