{"product_id":"uncivil-mirth-9780691241777","title":"Uncivil Mirth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow the philosophers and polemicists of eighteenth-century Britain used ridicule in the service of religious toleration, abolition, and political justice\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe relaxing of censorship in Britain at the turn of the eighteenth century led to an explosion of satires, caricatures, and comic hoaxes. This new vogue for ridicule unleashed moral panic and prompted warnings that it would corrupt public debate. But ridicule also had vocal defenders who saw it as a means to expose hypocrisy, unsettle the arrogant, and deflate the powerful. \u003ci\u003eUncivil Mirth\u003c\/i\u003e examines how leading thinkers of the period searched for a humane form of ridicule, one that served the causes of religious toleration, the abolition of the slave trade, and the dismantling of patriarchal power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRoss Carroll brings to life a tumultuous age in which the place of ridicule in public life was subjected to unparalleled scrutiny. He shows how the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, far from accepting ridicule as an unfortunate byproduct of free public debate, refashioned it into a check on pretension and authority. Drawing on philosophical treatises, political pamphlets, and conduct manuals of the time, Carroll examines how David Hume, Mary Wollstonecraft, and others who came after Shaftesbury debated the value of ridicule in the fight against intolerance, fanaticism, and hubris.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCasting Enlightenment Britain in an entirely new light, \u003ci\u003eUncivil Mirth\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how the Age of Reason was also an Age of Ridicule, and speaks to our current anxieties about the lack of civility in public debate.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ross Carroll","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42959831924854,"sku":"9780691241777","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/1374\/6550\/files\/CoreSourceHub_7b6223bc-677f-4216-9c2a-4437c7b77f63.jpg?v=1767773762","url":"https:\/\/ingramacademic.com\/products\/uncivil-mirth-9780691241777","provider":"Ingram Academic \u0026 Professional","version":"1.0","type":"link"}