England, and London in particular, have for a long time been destinations for people from many parts of the world. Foreigners, or ‘aliens’ in the parlance of the early modern period, have been welcomed but have also been subject to anti-foreigner undercurrents or outright xenophobia. The discourse on foreigners has been shaped by a variety of people and media.
‘Aliens in the City’ explores this discourse around foreigners in London, the role of popular culture, such as theatre plays, playwrights, journalists, publishers, and audiences. Who participated in this discourse, through which media, and how did negotiations of this discourse take place?
Susanne Lachenicht is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She works on Europe and the Atlantic World with a special focus on the Age of Revolution, media, diasporas, religious migrations, knowledge transfer and transformation, and temporalities in the early modern world.