The Savage Visit: New World People and Popular Imperial Culture in Britain, 1710-1795 by Kate Fullagar

JUDGES' COMMENTS

This entertaining, well-researched and intelligently argued work explores how ‘savages’ brought to Britain in the eighteenth century from North America, the South Pacific and Australasia were examined, feted and ignored. Fullagar takes great care to place her subjects within the changing cultural and intellectual climate of eighteenth century England. In explaining why Omai (Mai) —who arrived from an island near Tahiti in 1774 — was feted as the quintessential ‘noble savage’ while Bennelong — who reached England in 1793 — was treated with indifference, Fullagar deftly maps the decline of the noble savage ideal.

A major strength of this book is the manner in which it integrates archival, written and pictorial resources to map the rise and fall of an influential Enlightenment stereotype that is the noble savage. This is a beautifully written study, but also one that contributes to our understanding of the Enlightenment and what it stood for as an intellectual, social and cultural movement.