Thomas McGeary's book explores the relationship between Italian opera and British partisan politics in the era of George Frideric Handel.

A critical evaluation of how theatre was assimilated to the interests of government by suppressing 'democratic' disorders associated with the stage.

This book surveys the channels through which political ideas and knowledge were conveyed to the English people from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I to the Revolution of 1688. Shapiro argues that an assessment of English political culture requires an examination of all means by which this culture was expressed and communicated. While the discussion focuses primarily on genres such as the sermon, newsbook, poetry, and drama, it also considers the role of events and institutions. Shapiro is the first to explore and elucidate the entire web of communication in early modern English political life.

Explores the political meanings that Italian opera - its composers, agents and institutions - had for audiences in eighteenth-century Britain.

Reveals how England's eighteenth-century theatre dramatized anti-imperial protest, and gave voice to oppressed groups.