This Virtual Reading Group Extra with Dr. Shannon Chamberlain and Christy Lynn Horpedahl is a brief conversation about about Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, Part III and David Hume's Essay III, "That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science," from his Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary.
Don't ask, don't get. Thomas Cromwell is solidly within Henry VIII's orbit and his formidable talents are being to put good and bad use. Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell are helping Henry VIII remake the English court and country. Hume’s essay on the nascent field of political science poses questions for the readers. Chamberlain and Horpedahl discuss the arbitrariness of stories and history, whether we have good language for talking about institutions and institutional change throughout time, and the danger of unchecked power.
You can read the Hume essay, ""That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science," from his Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary at the Online Library of Liberty:
oll.libertyfund.org/title/hum...
You many also enjoy Garth Bond's Online Library of Liberty Reading Room post, "Francis Spufford’s Red Plenty and the Question of Historical Fiction" (which briefly mentions Wolf Hall).
oll.libertyfund.org/reading_r...
You can sign up for future virtual reading groups here:
oll.libertyfund.org/page/oll-...
Shannon Chamberlain is a tutor at St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM, and this conversation is, in part, inspired by a virtual reading group hosted by Liberty Fund on The Messiness of Progress: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and David Hume’s Essays and Histories.
oll.libertyfund.org/page/virt...
9 авг 2023
