This book weaves William Thomas Thornton's life story into the larger themes of his diverse writings whose purpose was to expose ambiguities and contradictions in politics, economics, metaphysics and religion. Thornton was a poet, an intrepid traveler, a biographer, an essayist, an imperial mandarin, and a dutiful family man. Thornton joined the East India Company in the mid-1830s, rising to become Secretary of the India Office's Department of Public Works. This study uses Thornton's letters and other recently-discovered primary material to provide a fascinating account that returns his compelling life to the center of nineteenth-century British intellectual thought.

Mark Donoghue has held faculty appointments at the Australian National University, National University of Singapore and the University of Notre Dame, Australia. He is currently on the faculty of SIM University, Singapore. He has published extensively in the field of the history of economic thought.

.One Beginnings.-

.Two Your Plea will not be in Vain.-

.Three The Best, Truest, Noblest of Friends.-

.Four Rhymes and Verses.-

.Five An Awkward Equilibrium.-

.Six Servant of the Raj.-

.Seven Burning Words.-

.Eight Final Works.-

.Epilogue.