An Essay Upon Projects (1697)[1] was the first volume published by Daniel Defoe.[2] It begins with an introduction containing a portrait of his time as a "Projecting Age",[3] and subsequently illustrates plans for the economic and social improvement of England,[4] including an early proposal for a national insurance scheme.
PublicationThe text was written in 1693 and published in 1697. The title page states that it was "[p]rinted by R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, at the Three Legs in the Poultrey. MDCXCVII." There is no known manuscript of the work. The essay was reprinted several times and reached a wide audience.[5]: 105 The book was dedicated to Dalby Thomas.
Subsequent publications on the same themeMany of its issues were later revised in a series of pamphlets which were published under the nom-de-plume of Andrew Moreton.[2] 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).[2] Compared to these works, however, An Essay Upon Projects is more focused on moral criticism than being project-oriented.[6]
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
- ^ Daniel Defoe (1697). An Essay Upon Projects. London: Printed by R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, at the Three Legs in the Poultrey. OCLC 6978589.
- ^ a b c P. B., Backscheider (1989). Daniel Defoe.His Life. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 517.
- ^ Defoe, p. 1.
- ^ "Social Projects". Indiana.edu. Indiana University Bloomington. 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ M E, Novak (2001). Daniel Defoe. Master of Fictions. United States of America: Oxford University Press. p. 680.
- 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.
- Daniel Defoe – The Collection of the Lily Library
- An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel Defoe at the Internet Archive
- An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel Defoe at Google Books
- An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel Defoe in the Gutenberg Project
