Abstract
This thesis reconstructs the life of George Hanger, 4th Baron Coleraine (1751-1824), in the form of a critical biography framed around his economic history. It argues that despite a general reluctance to frame life writing around financial expediency, even an especially colourful and creative life may usefully be understood in this way. In the introduction, I situate my research in the context of recent historiography.The thesis continues with a synoptic account of Hanger’s life, focusing especially on his sources of income and wealth and following a path established by a spendthrift youth. Subsequent chapters are arranged thematically and largely describe a chronological arc. They relate to Hanger’s military experiences as a cavalry officer in the American War, his sporting achievements, his significant representation in the caricature record (Hanger’s carefully maintained, hypermasculine image was reproduced profitably by Gillray and his contemporaries) and his involvement in politics. Then I describe the use made of his life towards and after his death when he served both as a stock archetype of bloodism and a symbol of a vanished era. Decades after the events upon which it was founded, his legend could be harnessed by Pierce Egan as the inspiration for Corinthian Tom in Life in London. Only as the nineteenth century progressed did his near contemporary, George Brummell, become better known.
In the final chapter, I compare the emerging literature on attention economics with what we can observe in and learn from Hanger’s life and the broader practices of attention arbitrage practised by newspapers, printsellers and booksellers with and in which he operated so deliberately. The value of attention in its own right has become much easier to conceptualise in our own, highly instrumented, age. Nevertheless, Hanger’s life demonstrates that the origins of these practices lie considerably further back than we might imagine.
Date of Award | 1 Aug 2021 |
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Original language | English |
Awarding Institution |
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Supervisor | Clare Brant (Supervisor) |