A Modest Proposal
October 1, 1729
Jonathan Swift, watching Ireland starve under English economic strictures, published a pamphlet suggesting that the country's excess infants be sold as food for the rich. Written in the cool register of a political arithmetician, it remains the greatest satire in the English language. The laughter it elicited froze in the reader's throat.
In context
Also in 1729 (3 other events on record)
- Nader Khan Drives the Afghans from Persia · Middle East · War
- Chinese Emperor Bans Opium · East Asia · Politics
- Natchez Revolt · North America · War
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
Era
Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources