William Knox : : The Life and Thought of an Eighteenth-Century Imperialist / / Leland J. Bellot.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Bellot, Leland J.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©1977
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (276 p.)

Colonial expert and pamphleteer William Knox has received attention in virtually every major study of the American Revolution, yet this is the first biography of Knox ever written. Knox is best known as undersecretary of state in the American Department of the British government from 1770 to 1782. A prolific and candid commentator, he also made a reputation as a pamphleteer, defending the imperial cause during the decade preceding the Revolution. It had been his experience as provost marshal in Georgia from 1757 to 1762 that convinced Knox of the danger to the empire of the growing "democratic" forces in the American colonies. While numerous historical works have focused on this or that aspect of Knox's career and thought, such treatment has produced at best a jigsaw portrait. Bellot's comprehensive narrative reveals Knox as a person—one whose Calvinist heritage and Scots-Irish upbringing profoundly influenced his view of empire—and as a historical actor and witness. Here is a look at the events of the revolutionary period through the eyes of a British bureaucrat who had a significant role in both the formation and the execution of British policy. This perspective also provides an excellent case study of the operation of the eighteenth-century British bureaucracy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. "The First Rudiments of My Political Education': Childhood & Youth in Ireland, 1732-1757 -- 2. "Legislators . . . That No King Can Govern Nor No God Can Please": Georgia, 1757-1762 -- 3.'" Dancing Attendance upon People in Office': Imperial Problems & the Georgia Agency, 1762-1765 -- 4. "An Offer . . . Advantageous & Honourable to You": Pamphleteering & the Pursuit of Office, 1765-1770 -- 5. "The Dye Is Cast & More Mischief Will Follow": Conflicts of Interest & the Coming of the American Revolution, 1770-1775 -- 6. "Wrath My Dear Lord Is Gone Forth": The American War, 1775-1778 -- 7. "Firmness & Temperance with a Readiness at Expedients": The American War, 1778-1782 -- 8. "I Will Do No Mischief, But I Will Stimulate the Minister to Do Good": Calamities, Public & Private, 1782-1790 -- 9. "I Quitted the Vortex of Politics": The Elder Statesman, 1790-1810 -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index