right|thumb|[[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson, co-founder of the ''Analytical Review'' (engraving by William Sharp after a painting by Moses Haughton)]]

<!-- This article uses British English (neighbour, centre etc) with Oxford spellings (-iz- instead of -is-). -->
The '''''Analytical Review''''' was a periodical established in 1788 by the publisher Joseph Johnson and the writer gadfly publication, which offered readers summaries and analyses of the many new publications issued at the end of the eighteenth century. 

Perhaps most important, the ''Analytical Review'' provided a forum for radical political and religious ideas. Although it aimed at impartiality, its articles were often critical of the British government and supportive of the Pitt administration. In late 1797, the ''Anti-Jacobin Review'', the self-styled nemesis of the ''Analytical Review'', was founded by supporters of the government and other reactionary interests; it criticized the radical politics of the ''Analytical'' and monitored it for unpatriotic and irreligious sentiments.

Organized into separate departments, each with its own chief reviewer, the ''Analytical Review'' focused on politics, philosophy, natural history, and literature.  To promote a disinterested air, its reviewers were anonymous, signing their work with pseudonymous initials.  Nevertheless, the journal recruited several prominent writers, such as the poet William Cowper, the moralist William Enfield, the physician John Aikin, and the polemicist Mary Wollstonecraft.

The ''Analytical Review'' suspended publication in December 1798 after the deaths of Christie (1796) and Wollstonecraft (1797), the conviction of Johnson for seditious libel (1798), and the retirement of other contributing editors.

==Establishment==
===Forerunners===
The Whig ''Monthly Review'', founded in 1749 by Tory ''Critical Review'', founded in 1756 by Tobias Smollett, were the first journals dedicated to reviewing books in Britain. Although they were joined by smaller publications such as the ''Analytical Review'', these two journals dominated reviewing in the second half of the eighteenth century. They focused on poetry, novels, drama, belles-lettres, travel literature, biographies, science writing, and other forms of popular literature. They did not review many complex theological or scholarly works, particularly those in foreign languages.<ref>Butler, 125.</ref>

Just prior to the founding of the ''Analytical Review'', two periodicals with similar aims had collapsed. The first was the ''Dissenting theologian, clergyman, and scientist Joseph Johnson at a low price to encourage a wide readership, the ''Repository'' was open to all opinions, provided that they were expressed courteously: "In this Repository not only will room be given to the freest objections to natural or revealed religion, but they are sincerely requested; and nothing that is new will be rejected, if it be expressed in decent terms".<ref>Qtd. in Tyson, 27.</ref> Although the ''Theological Repository'' was a financial liability for Johnson by 1771, he continued to publish it until 1773 and helped Priestley renew its publication in 1784.<ref>Braithwaite, 12–13, 18–19.</ref>

A second forerunner of the ''Analytical Review'' was Paul Henry Maty's periodical ''A New Review'' (published 1782&ndash;86), which was likewise devoted to reviewing books and offering a summary of their contents.  Like its successor, the ''New Review'' paid special attention to foreign literature and took a leading role in introducing German literature to the British public.<ref name=Tyson9698>Tyson, 96&ndash;98.</ref>
thumb|left|The prospectus for the ''Analytical Review'' (1788)  outlined the journal's intention to present readers with objective summaries of important new publications.

===Founding and ideals===
The demises of the ''Theological Repository'' and the ''New Review'' left a publishing vacuum; the arrival in London of the author Thomas Christie, who was dedicated to starting a new periodical that would replace and perhaps even improve upon these precursors, was the primary impetus in the creation of the ''Analytical Review''.<ref name=Roper223>Roper, 22–23.</ref> Johnson and Christie were mutual friends of Priestley and others, and their combined interest in beginning such a journal resulted in the foundation of the ''Analytical Review''.<ref name=Tyson9698/>

Johnson and Christie's prospectus describes its reviewers as "the HISTORIANS of the Republic of Letters" [emphasis in original].<ref>Qtd. in Andrews, 157.</ref> Literary scholar Paul Keen has described the Republic of Letters as a vision of society in which "all rational individuals could have their say, and in which an increasingly enlightened reading public would be able to judge the merit of different arguments for themselves".<ref>Keen, 4.</ref> The practical goal of the ''Analytical Review'' was to facilitate this society by summarizing serious new and foreign publications in great depth so that intelligent readers might form their own opinions.<ref>Tyson, 97–99; Teich, 12.</ref> This aim was embodied in its initial title: ''The Analytical Review; or, History of Literature, domestic and foreign, on an enlarged plan. Containing Scientific Abstracts of important and interesting Works, published in English; a general account of such as are of less consequence, with short characters; Notices, or Reviews of valuable foreign Books; Criticism on New pieces of Music and Works of Art; and the Literary Intelligence of Europe, etc.''<ref name=Teich11>Teich, 11.</ref> The periodical sought to avoid ephemeral works and to review only "standard works which add to the stock of human knowledge and will live beyond a day".<ref>Qtd. in Tyson, 99.</ref> Johnson and Christie also intended to eschew editorializing and to avoid shaping the tastes of the public. Scrupulous attention to this point was meant to bring the ''reviewed work'' into the foreground and not the ''reviewer'' (a goal shared by many eighteenth-century journals<ref>Butler, 126&ndash;27.</ref>). An early review, for example, criticized historian Edward Gibbon for "so frequently and unnecessarily obtruding his particular prejudices on the eye of his readers".<ref>Qtd. in Andrews, 157, from ''Analytical Review'' 1:129&ndash;30.</ref> All editors signed their reviews with initials (sometimes not their own) rather than with their names. This practice was meant to prevent the appearance of collusion between the reviewers and the authors reviewed, although this did not succeed in practice. It was also intended to prevent any unethical puffing, or false advertising, of friends' or one's own books; nevertheless, both Henry Fuseli and Mary Wollstonecraft reviewed their own books for the journal.<ref>Tyson, 99–100; Roper, 22–23; Andrews, 157.</ref> 

In repackaging other publications for its readers, the ''Analytical Review'' participated in the encyclopedic movement of the eighteenth century, a movement largely begun by Jean le Rond d'Alembert's ''Encyclopédie''. Excited and yet overwhelmed by what they viewed as a dramatic increase in human knowledge, encyclopedists of the era aimed to organize and classify all of this new knowledge using a new reference system: the encyclopedia. The ''Analytical Review'' was part of this project and its editors believed that they were preserving the knowledge of the past and the present for the future.<ref>Keen, 121; see also Daniel Roche, "Encyclopedias and the diffusion of knowledge". ''The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought''. Eds. Mark Goldie and Robert Wokler. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2006).</ref> The journal was, according to scholar Nathaniel Teich, "the most important radical review adopting the encyclopedic format for the attempted universal coverage of published works".<ref name=Teich11/> Yet, the editors also recognized the ultimate futility of such a project.<ref>Keen, 108, 117.</ref> 

The ''Analytical Review'' was meant to enlighten the public as well as to simplify communication between authors separated by great distances; most importantly, the debates between those authors could be read by the public.<ref>Keen, 28.</ref> In granting authors a public forum in which to communicate, periodicals such as the ''Analytical'' helped to define authorship—they encouraged the professionalization of writing and granted prestige to writers and journalists.<ref>Keen, 78.</ref>

Unusually for its time, the ''Analytical Review'' brought current foreign-language publications, particularly those with a scientific, philosophical, or aesthetic bent, to its readers' attention.<ref>Esterhammer, 101–05.</ref> For example, it approvingly reviewed Friedrich Schiller's ''Fiesco'' (published by Johnson) and argued that more of the author's works should be translated.<ref>Tyson, 141.</ref> The ''Analytical'' also emphasized the emerging middle-class Protestant work ethic, specifically tying it to scientific knowledge. One issue celebrated successful British merchants, calling them "the most liberal and enlightened men that have appeared in Europe" because of their "love of science" and their "patronage of learned men".<ref>Qtd. in Keen, 96.</ref>

==Organization and reviewers==
right|thumb|''Mary Wollstonecraft'', by [[John Opie (c.&nbsp;1791). Wollstonecraft was a friend of Joseph Johnson and one of the ''Analytical Review'''s major editors.]]
Johnson and Christie set up separate departments for practical sciences, such as mathematics, natural history, agriculture, and medicine; literature, such as poetry, drama, and romance; and finally, politics and religion, which encompassed government, theology, philosophy, morality, law, and trade. For each department, there was a chief reviewer, although he or she might engage others.<ref name=Tyson100102>Tyson, 100–02.</ref> Although the reviewers' names were not known to the public, Johnson and Christie managed to acquire several luminaries: the poet William Turner; the physician and literary critic James Currie; the artist Henry Fuseli;  the writer Mary Hays; the scholar Alexander Geddes; and the theologian Joshua Toulmin.<ref>Braithwaite, 88; Roper, 22–23; Teich, 11.</ref> The reviewers were all paid, however scholars have been unable to discover their rates. Christie was often absent after the founding of the ''Analytical Review'', leaving the day-to-day operations of the journal up to Johnson. In 1790 he went to Paris for six months, during which he met with revolutionary leaders and started a business; in 1792 he returned to help the French translate their constitution and to dissolve his business. He left for Surinam in 1796 to collect money owed him and died there.<ref>Christie, R. C., rev.  Alexander Du Toit. "Thomas Christie". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Retrieved on 14 January 2008.</ref>

The first issue of the ''Analytical Review'' was dated May 1788 and the last issue was dated December 1798. The issues were published monthly and averaged 128 pages. They were also collected into volumes, which consisted of four monthly issues and an appendix (volumes 21&ndash;28 switched to a semi-annual publication run without appendices).<ref>Teich, 11, 14.</ref> Each issue contained an extensive table of contents, several major reviews of 10 to 20 pages (sometimes extending to a second issue), many minor reviews, and a "catalogue of books and pamphlets published" during the previous six months.<ref>Teich, 12.</ref> 

Compared with other major periodicals of its day, the ''Analytical Review'' had a low circulation. While both the Tory ''Critical Review'' and the ''circulating libraries. Hence, circulation numbers offer only a small glimpse into how many people actually read such publications.<ref>Andrews, 212.</ref>

Beginning with the ''Analytical Review'''s third issue, Charlotte Smith’s autobiographical novel ''Romanticist Anne Chandler argues that Wollstonecraft's reviews demonstrate "an earlier Augustan politics of knowledge, variously outlined by Dryden, Pope, and, to a lesser extent, Swift" which "may be seen in her insistence on a continuum between aesthetic integrity and civic virtue; her belief in a metaphysical dialogue between human wit and divine Nature; and her perception of belletristic criticism as the proper tribunal for a new onslaught of scholarly and scientific research".<ref>Chandler, 2.</ref> While writing her last novel, ''Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman'' (1798), Wollstonecraft took advantage of her position with Johnson and reviewed almost nothing but novels, exposing herself to the wide variety of novelistic forms.<ref>Kelly, Gary. ''Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft''. New York: St. Martin's Press (1992), 204–12.</ref>

thumb|Utgiveren Joseph Johnson, en av stifterne av ''The Analytical Review'', gravering av William Sharp etter et maleri av Moses Haughton, [[National Portrait Gallery]]

'''The Analytical Review''' var et tidsskrift etablert i Joseph Johnson og forfatteren Thomas Christie. Som en del av oppsvinget i debatt mot slutten av 1700-tallet (Republic of Letters) var det en publikasjon som ga leserne sammendrag og analyser av de mange skriftene som kom ut.

Tidsskriftets kanskje viktigste funksjon var at det tjente som et forum for radikale politiske og religiøse ideer. Selv om utgiverne siktet mot å være upartiske var artiklene ofte kritiske til den britiske regjeringen og positive til revolusjonen i Pitt. Mot slutten av 1797 ble tidsskriftet ''Anti-Jacobin Review'' stiftet av konservative og tilhengere av regjeringen, det kritiserte ''The Analytical Review'' og overvåket det for upatriotiske og antireligiøse ytringer.

''The Analytical Review'' var organisert i ulike avdelinger, hver med sin kritiker og tok for seg politikk, filosofi, naturhistorie og litteratur. For å fremme en nøytral holdning var anmelderne anonyme og signerte sine bidrag med psevdonym. Tidsskriftet trakk allikevel til seg en rekke kjente skribenter, som poeten William Cowper, presten William Enfield, legen John Aikin og forfatteren og feministen Mary Wollstonecraft. Tidsskriftet opphørte i desember 1798 etter at Christie og Wollstonecraft hadde dødd, Johnson hadde blitt dømt for ærekrenkelse og andre viktige bidragsytere hadde gitt seg.