The Georgian era (1714-1811) was a period of staggering political, social, economic, intellectual, and artistic transformations. This course studies how literary and artistic works have shaped and responded to the tumultuous history of the eighteenth century, a period both modern and strange. Students learn how writers embraced politeness and Enlightenment values while relying on crude satires to make sense of disease outbreaks, financial bubbles and crashes, changes to marriage, industrialization, slavery, and the French Revolution.