The culture of improvement

Abstract

Abstract There was no one cultural system that embraced the kaleidoscopic character of eighteenth-century Britain. Too many people –– living in widely contrasting locations –– felt, thought, and acted in different ways for that to be possible. Yet there was a group of core beliefs that permeated the fabric of life throughout the British Isles, and exerted a powerful impact over its cultural identity and development. It is dangerous to prioritize any one of these beliefs and proclaim it the elusive ‘spirit of the age’, but if there is a single idea that occupied the cultural high ground, that resonated most closely with the timbre of the time, and set the agenda for the future, then improvement–– interpreted in the broadest sense –– could claim to be it.

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