Questions on Lady Mary's letters:

• What was her education background? [Georgia Brown]
• Who was she writing to [just the people she addressed, or was she thinking beyond that]? [Nicole DeMerchant]
• What were the travel norms of the 18th century? [Elora Arsenault]
• What di the English think of the people of Turkey? [Amber Carroll]
• Where exactly did she travel? [Jenna Hamilton]

Questions on Tom Paine:

• What specific problems with the monarchy does Paine discuss in his pamphlet? [Liz Harrison]
• What about Paine’s time and place influenced Paine to write “Common Sense”? [Colin Belyea]
• What is Paine doing by calling these ideas “common sense”? [Jeremy Fowler]
• Why does Paine want independence so much, why did he generate the question? [Kirsten Graham]

Questions on John Locke:

• What was the societal reaction to subsequent to the publication? [Ianic Roy Richard]
• How did the Church respond? [Mitchell Walsh]
• What did “toleration” mean at the time [Tom Creagh]
• How did this letter influence the Declaration of Independence? [Kale Robinson]

Questions on Jonathan Swift:

• What are the styles of satire Swift uses (Juvenalian, Horation) and how do they manifest in both works? [Maisa Leibovitz]
• What do critics say about Swift’s opinions about Wood’s coinage? Was he right, wrong? [Sarah Reicker]
• What was the reaction / response to the Drapier’s letters at the time, and did people suspect that the Drapier was Swift? [Michael Taggart]
• Where was Swift’s work published and who were reading it? [Paige Guptill]
• How much autonomy did Ireland have from England during the early 18th century? [Matt Pain]
• What is “original Christianity” and what are its alternatives? How does it relate to the Protestants, and to the piece in general? Who’s Catholic? Who’s Protestant? [Andrea Peters]

• 7 November: Sharing reports on readings