Citizens of the World : Adapting in the Eighteenth Century

Citizens of the World explores the eighteenth-century enthusiasm for the process of adaptation, whether the adaptation of literary works for new audiences, the adjustment of voyagers to life in different cultures, the application of ideas and technologies to new phenomena, or the assimilation of eccentric individual or offbeat phenomena into customary ways of thinking or doing. Nine authors from prominent universities around the world show how the adventurous thinkers, artists, and adventurers of the period placed adaptation at the center of the quest for a modern civilization. The book will appeal to cultural historians, historians of science, and those interested in literary metamorphoses.