This essay argues that idolatry is an important and still underappreciated theme in William Hazlitt’s philosophical and political writing, as well as his art criticism. It considers examples from across Hazlitt’s career, showing that his theory of idolatry-critique was informed both his early Unitarian education, and by his participation in the intellectual culture of the parliamentary reform movement during and immediately after the wars with France. In making this argument, I aim to provide an updated account of Hazlitt’s analysis of the post-Revolutionary interplay between ministerial oppression and popular consent. I will also show that these very same political dynamics drove Hazlitt to embrace an alternative, “virtuous”, mode of idolatry, centered on the ambiguous figure of Napoleon Buonaparte. At a broader methodological level, I wish to push back against the view that iconoclasm and idolatry-critique are inherently expressions of reductive dogmatism. The example of Hazlitt suggests that unflinching criticism of idols need not lead to intellectual or political sterility.
