13 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
British occultist who founded the religious philosophy of Thelema — 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law' — developed the Thoth Tarot with Frieda Harris, performed elaborate magical rituals, and became the defining figure of 20th century Western occultism, calling himself 'The Great Beast 666'.
British composer who is the most important English composer of the 20th century — whose operas (Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Death in Venice) explore outsidership, persecution, and the tension between the individual and society — and whose War Requiem juxtaposes Wilfred Owen's WWI poetry with the Latin Mass.
British historian who wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — the most celebrated historical work in the English language — tracing the fall of Rome from its height to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, arguing that Christianity and barbarism jointly destroyed classical civilization.
British novelist who wrote Mary Barton, North and South, Wives and Daughters, and a biography of Charlotte Brontë — depicting the industrial north of England and the clash between industrial capitalism and traditional values with the sympathy born of living in Manchester.
English philosopher and statesman — Lord Chancellor — author of Novum Organum and The Advancement of Learning — who created the inductive scientific method and argued that knowledge gives power over nature — the philosophical architect of the Scientific Revolution.
British writer who invented modern science fiction — The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau — and wrote realistic social novels and political prophecy, making him the dominant English-language popular intellectual of the early 20th century.
British medieval historian who wrote The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England, biographies of medieval English kings (The Perfect King — Edward III, The Fears of Henry IV), and The Dying and the Doctors — known for making medieval England vivid and accessible to popular audiences.
British novelist and dramatist who wrote An Inspector Calls and the 'time plays' (Time and the Conways, I Have Been Here Before) — deeply influenced by J.W. Dunne's serial time theory — and whose wartime broadcasts on the BBC were as important for British morale as Churchill's speeches.
English poet and political activist — author of Paradise Lost — Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell — who wrote the greatest epic poem in the English language while blind — and whose Areopagitica is the foundational argument for press freedom.
Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel following Margaret Hale from the soft rural south of England to the industrial north — her encounter with mill workers, strikes, and the industrialist John Thornton — one of the great Victorian industrial novels and a romance.
John Milton's 1667 blank verse epic — narrating the Fall of Satan, the Creation, and the Fall of Man — the most ambitious literary achievement in English and the source of the sympathetic Satan who influenced the Romantic tradition.
Ian Mortimer's 2008 popular history of medieval England structured as a travel guide — presenting medieval life in the 14th century (diet, medicine, social hierarchy, clothing, religion) as if the reader were visiting — one of the most original and successful popular history formats of recent decades.
English philosopher — author of Leviathan (1651) — who argued that without a sovereign power, life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' — and that legitimate government derives from a social contract in which individuals surrender natural freedom for security.