Projects in British Culture, 1660-1730

FAIN: FT-229150-15

David Michael Alff
SUNY Research Foundation, Buffalo State College (Buffalo, NY 14222-1004)

Summer research and writing on British History and Literature, and Western Civilization.

My book manuscript investigates the idea of projects, concrete yet incomplete schemes for advancing British society during the 1600 and 1700s. Then, as now, a "project" was a discrete effort to achieve some goal, be it the construction of a bridge, the relief of the poor, or the composition of a poem. The word meant both a unit of human endeavor and a genre of writing for proposing new enterprise through specific literary devices and persuasive strategies. By attending to the rhetorical, material, and performative aspects of a broad range of proposals, my research argues for a more comprehensive British historiography attentive to old plans for futures that could have been.

Media Coverage

UB researcher examining the roots of the modern world (Media Coverage)
Publication: UB researcher examining the roots of the modern world
Date: 8/11/2015
URL: http://news.wbfo.org/term/david-alff#stream/0

Associated Products

The Idea of Projects in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Idea of Projects in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Abstract: I was invited to workshop a portion of the introduction of my book manuscript, which incorporates research funded by my NEH Summer Stipend.
Author: David Alff
Date: 5/11/16
Location: University of Indiana, Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Primary URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~voltaire/workshop2016.html

The Wreckage of Intentions: Projects in British Culture, 1660-1730 (Book)
Title: The Wreckage of Intentions: Projects in British Culture, 1660-1730
Author: David Michael Alff
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=9780812249590
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry (9780812249590)
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780812249590

---