Past and Present (book)

Past and Present

Title page of the first English edition
Author	Thomas Carlyle
Language	English
Subjects	Medieval history social criticism
Genre	Non-fiction
Published	April 1843
Publisher	Chapman and Hall
Publication place	England
Text	Past and Present at Internet Archive

Past and Present is a book by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle.^[1] It was published in April 1843 in England and the following month in the United States. It combines medieval history with criticism of 19th-century British society. Carlyle wrote it in seven weeks as a respite from the harassing labor of writing Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. He was inspired by the recently published Chronicles of the Abbey of Saint Edmund's Bury, which had been written by Jocelin of Brakelond at the close of the 12th century. This account of a medieval monastery had taken Carlyle's fancy, and he drew upon it in order to contrast the monks' reverence for work and heroism with the sham leadership of his own day.