Phase 4- Taking Stock and Moving Forward: Besant

 In the Lilly I have been consistently working with Annie Besant and the Free Thought Publishing Collection; more specifically with her text English Republicanism. While searching the Lilly for more resources within the Free Thought Publishing Collection I discovered that Besant wrote many pamphlets with Free Thought and that the two originally given to us at the Lilly were really just the tip of the ice burg pertaining to the information available. While searching those related sources I discovered that although many of her pieces within the Free Thought Group were related to a more republican society, there was one text that clearly stood out from the rest titled Modern Socialism. The plain dissonance between just the title and her other work interested me; Why would such a revolutionary woman want to enlighten her audience about the role of socialism and its benefits in modern society? 

From this question and some help from Dr. Graban I was able to come up with a tentative question for my paper. I plan to look at Besant's writing path throughout a specific number of years writing for Free Thought and the shifts that occurred throughout that time period based on three of her pamphlets within the Free Thought Collection. To unpack this question I plan to look at several different evidences that I can track throughout her pamphlets are: the structures of her argumentation, her consistency or inconsistency in her ideology, and the larger social context within the time of each pamphlet. 

My argument will center around Besant's English Republicanism and two other pamphlets within the Lilly collection, although I don't know specifically which two other articles I am going to use. In addition to three of Besant's works I plan to utilize outside sources from some of the resources within the class website. Again I don't know specific articles, but I will be looking for ones that will give me more information related to the social context surrounding each pamphlet I use. Hopefully though all these actions I can log Besant's rhetorical and political behavior in regards to what was happening in mainstream society. 

If anyone has any suggestions, questions or comments please tell me them! I am totally open to any help/knowledge given with a new set of eyes.