Who's who in Early Hanoverian Britain, 1714-1789

Of the notable artists and craftsmen of the time, Laurence Sterne, author of the mock-heroic novel Tristram Shandy, makes an appearance here, as do the furniture maker Thomas Chippendale, painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, author Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), and composer George Frederic Handel. On the political side, the author includes the "mad" King George III, the revolutionary Thomas Paine, the economist Adam Smith (whose influence is still felt today), and the great explorer Captain James Cook.