History and literature from milton to wollstonecraft

This chapter considers how literature of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries encourages us to think about the past. Beginning with Milton’s epic poem, I argue that literature of this period persistently foregrounds philosophical questions about how we, as readers and as historical persons, are to understand the past as an aspect of our experience. I focus on three authors from the eighteenth century - Daniel Defoe, James Macpherson, and Sophia Lee - in the context of the period’s major literary and historiographical works.