1760s
Showing 74 works across all media from the 1760s
The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 1
Bao-yu, born with a jade in his mouth, would rather write poems with his cousins than study for the exams, while his great eighteenth-century Chinese family slides toward ruin. Their world is ending.
The Swing
An old man works the ropes without knowing the young man in the bushes is looking straight up her skirts. A slipper flies off.
On the Social Contract
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Nobody holds natural authority over anyone, Rousseau argues, so law binds you only if you helped make it. Geneva burned the book.
Emile, Or On Education
Raising an imaginary boy from infancy to marriage, Rousseau insists children learn from things rather than books and should not be reasoned with too early. Our whole picture of childhood descends from it.
Paul Revere
Copley painted the silversmith in his shirtsleeves at the bench with a teapot in his hand, which was not how gentlemen were usually shown.
Philosophical Dictionary
Seventy-three short articles, sized to fit a coat pocket, each take apart a piece of church doctrine or the cruelty it licensed. Both Geneva and Paris consigned it to the flames.
The Journals
Cook charts New Zealand and eastern Australia in his own hand, and sails until no southern continent is left to find. The log calls the Aborigines happier than Europeans, then claims their coast.
Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.