Early Hanoverians

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In this short book Edward Ellis Morris writes a vivid account of the reigns of the first two Georges. Scarcely had the fifty-four-year-old king assumed the throne when James Stuart roused the Highlanders in the "Fifteen." Five years later the collapse of the South Sea Company convulsed Britain and her first prime minister, Robert Walpole, emerged to stabilize the country's finances. George II succeeded his father in 1727 and Morris writes that "the new King was in person short, and like many short men, proud and touchy." Fortunately, he was guided by the wise Queen Caroline. On the Continent, the Turks besieged Vienna, Britain got embroiled first in the War of Jenkins' Ear and then in the War of the Austrian Succession, while Bonnie Prince Charlie took advantage of these distractions to mount the nearly successful Jacobite invasion of the "Forty-five." Meanwhile, John Wesley's Methodism revived religious enthusiasm, Boswell immortalized Samuel Johnson and his friends, and Tom Jones embarked on an epic road trip in which Henry Fielding brought English society to life, warts and all. - Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.