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This essay explores Wollstonecraft's experimental first novel, Mary: A Fiction (1788) in the context of Dissenting preoccupation with prejudice. It shows how Wollstonecraft shared the Dissenters' analysis that prejudice was the source of political and social oppression, and how she extended that insight into her account of the situation of women. She shared with Dissent a belief in education and in print culture as tools to combat prejudice, but her experimental textual strategies differ significantly from, for instance, that of Dissenter Anna Laetitia Barbauld, in her "Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts" (1790). Where Barbauld replicates in print the rhetorical strategies of public and political discourse, Wollstonecraft, in key moments in Mary, draws on the model, from Edward Young, of authentic, persuasive enthusiasm, to "steal into the soul" of her readers. Early in her writing career, she can thus be seen seeking to turn affective transport to political effect, and experimenting with the resources and registers of print culture to combat prejudice, and enact dissent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text explores the impact of Mary Wollstonecraft's time in Newington Green, London, on her intellectual and political development. It discusses how her interactions with the Rational Dissenters community in Newington Green, including figures like James Burgh and Richard Price, influenced her work and contributed to her development as a writer and thinker. The text also examines the legacy of Wollstonecraft's time in Newington Green and its continued influence on educational reform, reading practices, and contemporary feminist movements. Overall, it emphasizes the significance of Newington Green in shaping Wollstonecraft's ideas and contributions to feminist thought. [Extracted from the article]

This article considers Wollstonecraft's Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution (1794), and especially its treatment of bread shortages and the march on Versailles of October 1789, in the context of debates over political economy in the 1790s. It argues that in Wollstonecraft's history, bread (or its absence) denotes a symbolic economy of the impeded circulation of knowledge, provision and improvement. The liberation of the grain trade which, unlike other contemporary chroniclers of the Revolution, Wollstonecraft foregrounds, is thus more than an attempt at economic reform. It marks Wollstonecraft's larger effort to co-opt a chaotic narrative of revolution to that of improvement, and economic and political liberty. The role of the mob, however, brings to a head the problems faced by philosophical historians such as Wollstonecraft in accommodating commerce to their narratives of improvement, and opens out wider ambivalences over the futures of both political economy and liberty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a critical analysis of Adam Smith's 'Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.' Use of physiological language and imagery in Smith's work; Specific proposals on politico-economic matters by Smith; Various philosophical inquiries having an influence on Smith's writings; Links between different kinds of economic activities suggested by Smith.