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Prophecy and Power - 2nd Edition by Patrick Curry & H Darrel Rutkin (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- Patrick Curry rediscovers the history of astrology in early modern England: he seeks to overturn the accepted view that astrology was a marginal pursuit that died out after the mid-seventeenth century.
- Author(s): Patrick Curry & H Darrel Rutkin
- 260 Pages
- Body + Mind + Spirit, Astrology
Description
About the Book
Rediscover the history of astrology in early modern England. Patrick Curry demonstrates that astrology was a vital part of English cultural life, surviving despite powerful opposition.
Book Synopsis
Patrick Curry rediscovers the history of astrology in early modern England: he seeks to overturn the accepted view that astrology was a marginal pursuit that died out after the mid-seventeenth century. Curry demonstrates that in reality, astrology was a vital part of English cultural life, surviving in various forms and despite powerful opposition throughout the eighteenth century. Drawing on a wide range of unpublished primary sources, he examines the heyday of astrology, its practitioners, clients, and critics--and the power struggles that characterized its development in the mid-seventeenth century. He analyzes the subsequent decline of astrology in early modern England, showing how most astrological practice was marginalized, or, among the elite, absorbed into the development of Newtonian natural philosophy. This accessible work provides a picture of the values of a complex and important age. Informed by an awareness of contemporary debates in history and social theory, it will appeal to social historians and to students and researchers in the history and philosophy of science and the history of ideas, as well as the general reader interested in astrology.
Review Quotes
"Patrick Curry's Prophecy and Power, first published in 1989, represents a seminal moment in the new historiography of astrology. Taking a non-judgemental view of a practice which had frequently been misrepresented, Curry questions simple demarcations such as magic, science and religion, and focuses instead on how astrology was used and conceptualised in seventeenth-century England. He opens up a window into astrologers' universe of discourse, a cosmos in which all things are connected, and sustained by meaning and symbol. The book contributes significantly to our understanding of wider cultural developments in the seventeenth century, as the culture of the Renaissance gradually turned into what we now know as the modern world." - Nicholas Campion
"Prophecy and Power is both original and persuasive . . . The book is written with sympathy, lucidity and vigor. . . . It is accessible to the general reader as well as having something new to say to scholars in the field." - Peter Burke
"In this ambitious and outstandingly successful reappraisal Patrick Curry explores the role of astrology in England between 1600 to 1800. Curry produces a challenging thesis concerning the resilience of astrology in the eighteenth century. He convincingly demonstrates, utilizing much documentary evidence, that astrology retained its vitality as an ingredient of popular culture." - Charles Webster
"Patrick Curry's timely and original synthesis of recent studies of the fate of astrology in England . . . offers a remarkable new picture of social and intellectual change among the classes of early modern society [and] . . . presents a fascinating challenge to received versions of the history of systems of thought." - Simon Schaffer