Humans have attempted to understand and treat mental illness for centuries – from ancient Greek medicine, Middle Ages exorcisms and the rise of asylums, to modern medical breakthroughs.
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Articles on Daniel Defoe
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I have spent five years tracking down more than 10,000 accounts of wildlife by naturalists, travellers, historians and even poets, all written between 1529 and 1772
By taking human beings out of society, castaway stories suggest our individualist survival instincts come to the fore. But no man (or woman) is an island. True freedom comes through co-operation.
Accounts of previous epidemics – by Samuel Pepys, Daniel Defoe and Katherine Porter – warn of mistakes that we risk repeating.
Bleach to defeat COVID-19 or fire to dispel plague, history is full of quack medicine.
Isolation. Despair. Facing our demons. What does the most-translated novel tell us about living with COVID-19?
Written 60 years after the bubonic plague swept London, Defoe’s account may have been a hoax, but it still rings true today.
Published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe was one of the first novels (in the modern sense) written in English. Some 300 years later, the complicated castaway and his misadventures continue to shape culture.
It may only be Scotland that is heading to the polls on September 18, but it is not the only interested party in the results of the independence referendum. England would obviously play a dominant role…
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Professor of English and National Teaching Fellow, Birmingham City University
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