Frank O'Gorman
Auteur van The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688-1832 (Contexts)
Over de Auteur
Francis O'Gorman is Saintsbury Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, UK, He is the author or editor of 23 books, including Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History (Bloomsbury, 2015). He is currently working on three separate projects: on Yeats, on London, and on Emily toon meer Bront. toon minder
Werken van Frank O'Gorman
The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688-1832 (Contexts) (1997) 61 exemplaren
A Concise Companion to the Victorian Novel (Concise Companions to Literature and Culture) (2004) 13 exemplaren
British Conservatism: Conservative Thought - Burke to Thatcher (Documents in Political Ideas) (1986) 9 exemplaren
Voters, patrons, and parties : the unreformed electoral system of Hanoverian England 1734-1832 (1989) 6 exemplaren
Gerelateerde werken
The Duke's Children (1880) — Redacteur, sommige edities; Introductie, sommige edities — 1,172 exemplaren
Edward Thomas : prose writings: a selected edition. Volume V, Critical studies : Swinburne and Pater (2017) — Editor. — 1 exemplaar
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Algemene kennis
- Geslacht
- male
Leden
Besprekingen
Lijsten
Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk
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- 267
- Populariteit
- #86,454
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- 4.0
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- 60
The bulk of the book seems to be O’Gorman’s collection of nefarious references to the future – future success, planning, execution, training, hopes and dreams. Our vocabulary is full of possibilities and O’Gorman has no trouble finding numerous words as evidence. As if this accent on the future were some sort of perversion. There is a long explanation of how 1800s railroad timetables set the rot of having us look for the next, not the previous. But why would society waste time enjoying old timetables? The only thing more useless would be yesterday’s weather forecast.
It is a difficult book. It ranges far and wide, without cohesion. But O’Gorman goes too far when he says “We are half conscious that we already have figurative Alzheimer’s.” Alzheimer’s is not forgetfulness; it is brain damage in which victims are unable to remember their own lives. This is not the same as failing to appreciate what and who have come before, where that is even possible.
There is a kind of arrogance in his belief that everything we have ever done is precious. We know far more today, and the way of life of our ancestors is less relevant by the minute. It has been a very short time since the majority of us could read at all. Before then, there was universal ignorance of past, present or future. Since then, there has been a veritable explosion of books, papers, speeches, documentaries and websites extolling research, discovery and interpretation of everything from the ages of the Earth to the workings of the brain. The best and the brightest among us could not hope to absorb more than an infinitesimal portion of it. No one person can even make sense of it all. And O’Gorman never argues convincingly that in 2017 we are any more forgetful than we have ever been.
David Wineberg… (meer)