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18th Century
The eighteenth century in England has been called the age of elegance. This era is often criticized for turning away from Puritanism. Sir Isaac Newton was greatly admired for seeming to know everything. During this period England was ruled by Queen Anne and the Hanovers. The first two rulers after Jane, George I and George II never learned to speak English and practically did nothing for the country. George III was the ruler during the American Revolution and is mostly remembered for losing the 13 colonies to the Americans. Americans disliked him very strongly and considered him to be a tyrant also they thought of him as being the most controversial of all the Hanover kings. Another great change that occurred during this century was the industrial revolution. People started to live better because of the new production methods and the building of new factories. This was probably the main reason why England turned away from Puritanism, because the people were only interested or involved in the church to make a living, not because they were true Christians. John and Charles Wesley started a revival known as the Wesley revival in which the helped change the mindset and attitudes of conformity that were affecting the Church of England.

This century was full of great writers that, unlike writers form previous centuries, focused their writing in their hatred toward man and politics. Daniel Defoe was the first great writers of this era. He started off being a famous journalist and then became a prolific writer. His most famous work was Robinson Crusoe. Alexander Pope was probably the century’s greatest writer. He is best known for his epic mock “The Rape of the Lock”. Jonathan Swift is remembered for the book “Gulliver’s Travels”. Another great writer was Samuel Johnson who became famous for writing his dictionary of the English language. James Boswell was a very big admirer of Johnson and after getting to spend time with him wrote a...