William Cook Miller

William Cook Miller is an English Professor at Cornell University, renowned for his scholarly work The Enthusiast: Anatomy of the Fanatic in Seventeenth-Century British Culture. His research focuses on early modern British literary and intellectual history, particularly the transformation of religious dissent into literary tropes during the transition from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. He examines figures like Henry More, John Locke, and Jonathan Swift to explore themes of fanaticism, spirituality, and secular modernity.

Miller’s writing blends historical analysis with literary critique, evident in his blog posts discussing topics such as aesthetic hypersensitivity and cultural artifacts like nursery rhymes and 17th-century imagery. These pieces highlight his interdisciplinary approach to understanding cultural and intellectual movements.

His work has been praised for its meticulous research and narrative depth, positioning him as a leading voice in 17th-century literary studies. Though no specific grants or laboratories are mentioned, his contributions to scholarship emphasize textual analysis and historical context within early modern studies.