{"product_id":"orienting-virtue-bethany-williamson-9780813947600","title":"Orienting Virtue: Civic Identity and Orientalism in Britain's Global Eighteenth Century","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat does it mean for a nation and its citizens to be virtuous? The term \"virtue\" is ubiquitous in eighteenth-century British literature, but its definition is more often assumed than explained. Bringing together two significant threads of eighteenth-century scholarship--one on republican civic identity and the mythic legacy of the freeborn Briton and the other on how England's global encounters were shaped by orientalist fantasies-- \u003ci\u003eOrienting Virtue\u003c\/i\u003e examines how England's sense of collective virtue was inflected and informed by Eastern empires.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBethany Williamson shows how England's struggle to define and practice national virtue hinged on the difficulty of articulating an absolute concept of moral value amid dynamic global trade networks. As writers framed England's story of exceptional liberties outside the \"rise and fall\" narrative they ascribed to other empires, virtue claims encoded anxieties about England's tenuous position on the global stage, especially in relation to the Ottoman, Mughal, and Far Eastern empires. Tracking valences of virtue across the century's political crises and diverse literary genres, Williamson demonstrates how writers consistently deployed virtue claims to imagine a \"middle way\" between conserving ancient ideals and adapting to complex global realities. \u003ci\u003eOrienting Virtue\u003c\/i\u003e concludes by emphasizing the ongoing urgency, in our own moment, of balancing competing responsibilities and interests as citizens both of nations and of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Bethany Williamson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 081394760X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780813947600\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Virginia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/18\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 270\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d","brand":"Bethany Williamson","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44070854951167,"sku":"9780813947600","price":95.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_69e4e96a-e419-40a1-b3ba-c43c36fc8756.jpg?v=1685432724","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/orienting-virtue-bethany-williamson-9780813947600","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}