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Chapter 8 - Saving Individual Virtue

from Part III - War and Peace in an Age of Revolutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2024

Andrew Lincoln
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
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Summary

As public criticism of Britains war-making became more vocal and searching in the later decades of the eighteenth century, the process of moral insulation (distancing the public morally from the violence of war) became more important. It allowed the pacific ideal of feminine virtue to be reconciled with support for war, as seen in the emergent figure of the wife-at-war. Expressions of sympathy for the victims of war, reinterpretations of pacific Christian doctrine, and attempts to dissociate the officer classes morally from the violent practices of those they commanded, all provided some moral insulation for members of the reading public. The chapter ends with reference to Jane Austens fiction, which both depends upon, and exposes the limits of, such insulation.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Saving Individual Virtue
  • Andrew Lincoln, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book: Imagining War and Peace in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1690–1820
  • Online publication: 10 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009366519.013
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  • Saving Individual Virtue
  • Andrew Lincoln, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book: Imagining War and Peace in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1690–1820
  • Online publication: 10 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009366519.013
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Saving Individual Virtue
  • Andrew Lincoln, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book: Imagining War and Peace in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1690–1820
  • Online publication: 10 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009366519.013
Available formats
×