Past and Present (Annotated)

Past and Present (1843) is Thomas Carlyle's searching meditation on the moral crisis of industrial Britain, set in counterpoint with the medieval chronicle of Abbot Samson of Bury St Edmunds. Moving between historical narrative, social criticism, prophecy, and satire, Carlyle contrasts organic communal authority with the "cash nexus" of modern capitalism. Its vehement, biblical prose and fragmente...