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Peacock's "Iron Chickens" Coming Home

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conference contribution
posted on 2024-05-29, 10:42 authored by John Gardner

Thomas Love Peacock compartmentalised work and play to an extent that borders on negative capability. Although described as a ‘hater of modernity’, Peacock was an indefatigable champion of iron steamships, and directly responsible for the first built in the 1830s. As well as commissioning four tugs at the start of the 1830s, Peacock commissioned six gunboats—his ‘iron chickens’-- all of which saw service in the First Opium War with China between 1839 to 1842. Living in his new ‘age of iron’, Peacock was certainly a gunboat diplomat through his work for the East India Company. As Sylva Norman writes, ‘Few among those who study Peacock as a novelist, literary essayist, and poet have penetrated far into the specialized world he entered in the East India Company’s service.’ Working at the EIC from January 1819 until his retirement thirty-seven years later, Peacock promoted the latest industrial technology, commerce (to include opium), and war. I examine the reasons why Peacock, who has been called a 'liberal', became an originator of the iron gunboat.

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Refereed

  • Yes

Place of publication

University of Oxford

Name of event

Work and Play

Location

St Hugh's College, University of Oxford

Event start date

2024-01-03

Event finish date

2024-01-05

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