In Praise of Poverty: Hannah More Counters Thomas Paine and the Radical Threat by Mona Scheuermann (review)

Reviews Mona Scheuermann. In Praise ofPoverty: Hannah More Counters Thomas Paine andthe Radical Threat. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. 255p. ViCKi Ramirez Wehek State Univt-jhsity At the outset ofMona Scheuermann's book on Hannah More, 18th-century British writer of social tracts, the author makes clear that her study of More in the context ofThomas Paine's writing is as much a social history as it is a study ofan individual author. This warning prepares us for an examination of the prolific More, embedded within her era's socio-political issues. Scheuermann's strategy ofexploring Mores authorship in conjunction with that of Paine—but also in relation to other, equally renowned writers of her time— enables us to grasp the ideological coloring ofMore and her wealthy backers. The daughter ofa schoolmaster, More and her three sisters all have early access to superb education, although Hannah is the most precocious. She teaches at her oldest sister's school, and later comes to the attention of London's intellectual elite when a letter she writes on a performance of Garrick's Lear gets circulated. She soon becomes acquainted with some ofthe intellectual giants ofher day, and develops friendships that last her entire life. More and her circle of influential friends and admirers believe in God's hierarchy as established on earth, which "conveniently supported the status quo." According to this scheme, revolutionary ideas in general, but in particular those relating to the socio-economic betterment of the English poor, directly counter God's plan. Scheuermann establishes the strictly hierarchical nature of 18th-century English thought promoted by Church and King, and written about by such thinkers as Edmund Burke. He and like-minded writers assumed that poverty is divinely ordained, and at best may be ameliorated through charity, but can never be fundamentally altered. In her chapter "Radical Contexts," Scheuermann focuses on Thomas Paine's thought, especially in her discussion ofhis "The Rights ofMan." In diis written response to Edmund Burke's attack on the French Revolution, Scheuermann vivifies what is at stake for the ruling classes in 1790s England. For scholars and teachers ofearly American Literature, Paine's Common Sense and other Revolutionary War propaganda will be familiar territory. Scheurermann details the impact die book has not only on the disenfranchised who quote its pages and discuss its ideas, but on the powerful who recognize the danger its call to equality presents. Mores immediate enlistment by members of her circle to counter what they consider Paine's dangerous, ungodly attacks on the status quo begins a long, fruitful career FALL 2003 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW + 65 as pamphleteer, whose sole aim is to remind the poor oftheir religious and moral duties. Scheuermann also points out the centrality of the written word to this grand "debate" between le^-century reactionary and radical voices. By teasing out the social structures perpetuating the divide between the privileged and the poor, Sheuermann makes clear, for example, how education can be used "in praise of poverty": taught to minimally read and write, the poorer classes are then fed a steady diet of didactic teachings aimed at reinforcing the divine provenance of social iniquity. The authordevotes ample space to close readings ofMore's most popular tracts, though is quick to question how genuinely attractive More's writing is to its intended readers, considering that her pamphlets are distributed to the masses for free. More is a competent writer with a flair for narrative, but Scheuermann illustrates how More's characterizations are always drawn in black and white to make her didactic points as clear as possible. Her writing betrays a particular set ofassumptions about the poor: limited to simplistic ideas and presentation, More reveals an attitude of innate moral and intellectual superiority towards the lower classes. Her Village Politics and Cheap Repository Tracts exemplify the ideologically driven, pedantic tenor ofher "popular" writing in general. Scheuermann's In Praise ofPoverty provides a multi-layered look at 1e^-century British thought, disclosing the strain that Enlightenment ideas place on the ancient fabric ofdivine right and religious hegemony preceding the modern era. Teachers ofAmerican Literature, but also of British Literature, get a view ofhow revolutionary ideas emanating from North...