An Essay Upon Projects (1697) was the first volume published by Daniel Defoe.[1] It begins with a portrait of his time as a "Projecting Age"[2] and subsequently illustrates plans for the economic and social improvement of England,[3] including an early proposal for a national insurance scheme.

Publication

The text was written in 1693 and published in 1697. The frontispiece states "printed by R. R. for Tho. Cockerill, at the Corner of Warwick-Lane, near Paternoster – Row. MDCXCVII". There is no known manuscript of the work. The essay was reprinted several times and reached a wide audience.[4]: 105  The book was dedicated to Dalby Thomas

Subsequent publications on the same theme

Many of its issues were later revised in a series of pamphlets which were published under the nom-de-plume of Andrew Moreton.[1] They are titled Every-body's Business, Is No-body's Business (1725), The Protestant Monastery (1726), Parochial Tyranny (1727), Augusta Triumphans (1728) and Second Thoughts are Best (1729).[1] Compared to these works, however, An Essay Upon Projects is more focused on moral criticism than being project-oriented.[5]

A list of the chapters

  • Author's Preface - to Dalby Thomas, Esq.
  • Author's Introduction
  • The History of Projects
  • Of Projectors
  • Of Banks
  • Of the Highways
  • Of Assurances
  • Of Friendly Societies
  • The Proposal is for a Pension Office
  • Of Wagering
  • Of Fools
  • Of Bankrupts
  • Of Academies
  • Of a Court Merchant
  • Of Seamen
  • The Conclusion

References

  1. 1 2 3 P B, Backscheider (1989). Daniel Defoe.His Life. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 517.
  2. ↑ D, Defoe (1887). An Essay Upon Projects. London, Paris, New York and Melbourne: Cassell & Company.
  3. ↑ "Social Projects". Indiana.edu. Indiana University Bloomington. 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Zekonyte, Kristina (2018). Projectors in seventeenth-century England and their relevance to the field of project management — The University of Brighton. Brighton: University of Brighton.
  5. ↑ M E, Novak (2001). Daniel Defoe. Master of Fictions. United States of America: Oxford University Press. p. 680.

Bibliography

  • Backscheider, P B, Daniel Defoe.His Life, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1989.
  • “Social Projects”, Daniel Defoe. The Collection of the Lily Library, Indiana University Bloomington, 2008, retrieved 25 October 2015, <http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/defoe/projects.html>
  • George, M D, London Life in the Eighteenth Century, Penguin Books, Great Britain, 1979.
  • Maldonado, Tomás (2002). "Defoe and the 'Projecting Age'". Design Issues. 18 (1): 78–85. doi:10.1162/07479360252756313. JSTOR 1512032. S2CID 57567525.
  • Moore, John Robert (1971). "Defoe's Persona as Author: The Quaker's Sermon". SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900. 11 (3): 507–516. doi:10.2307/449910. JSTOR 449910.
  • Novak, M E, “Last Productive Years”, Daniel Defoe Master of Fictions. His Life and Ideas, Oxford University Press, United States of America, 2001.


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