Topics of letters
Electronic Enlightenment provides an extraordinarily rich collection of documents, in which you may find yourself engaged in discussions on vulcanism, horticulture, bread-making, political controversy or remedies for kidney stones.
With thousands of correspondents, tens of thousands of documents and hundreds of thousands of scholarly notes, fully interlinked and cross-searchable in multiple ways, EE offers you unrivalled access to the topics and themes of interest from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries.
The 79,254 letters and documents in EE cover virtually every conceivable topic area, including:
- art & literature
- birth, death & marriages
- business & economics
- diplomacy & current affairs
- educational & cultural institutions
- food & drink
- health, hygiene & medicine
- law & politics
- maths & geometry
- music & theatre
- news & gossip
- philosophy & theology
- printing & publishing
- science & technology
- shopping & the weather
- travel & events
- war & revolution
There are even the weird & wonderful:
. . . we have all expected you here at Easter, as you were used to do. — Your Muster-Roll of Meat is good, but, of Drink in sup Port able. Yew wann twine. My stress Alba via hath eaten here all your hung Beef, and said it was very good. I am now come to the noli me Tan Jerry, which begg Inns wyth mad Dam — So So I will go on by the Strength of my own Wit upon Points of the high est imp or taunts.
— Jonathan Swift to Rev. Thomas Sheridan (20 April 1737)
(EE letter id: swifjoOU0050028a1c).
Begin with a look at:
- EE Lesson plans — study modules using letters as historical evidence;
- EE Talking points — examples of topics discussed in the letters.
Topics & Talking points
Please visit Electronic Enlightenment's new Classroom, where "Topics" become "Talking points". There you will find thematically related letters and lives, drawn from EE, which can be used to develop a discussion or suggest a field of research.