"During Sir Robert Walpole's term as "Prime Minister" exorbitant amounts of money were spent on propaganda in support of his administration. Since nearly all the major writers of the period adopted an anti-government stance, however, historians have shown far more interest in the organization and contents of opposition propaganda than in its pro-government counterpart. This book is the first comprehensive study of the literature published in support of Walpole's administration, and explores important pro-government themes, and also explains how the propaganda network was organized and what precisely the Old Corps Whig leadership hoped to achieve."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

What did it mean to be a "Patriot" during the Walpole administration? This is the first full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Walpole which reached its height during the clamor for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. Christine Gerrard examines the interrelationship between patriotism, politics, and poetry in the period 1724-1742, looking at the poetry and drama of such authors as James Thomson, Alexander Pope, and the young Samuel Johnson, who were all drawn to the heady idealism of the young Boy Patriots. Other authors discussed include Bolingbroke, Lyttleton, West, Mallet, and Hill, and Gerrard looks, too, at the literature, prints, architecture, and statuary of the 1730s.