For the second edition of this volume a considerable number of changes have been made. Henry Fielding's Tragedy of Tragedies has been added, as has a new section of material from eighteenth-century periodicals. A new Contexts section entitled "Transatlantic Currents" includes writings by such figures as Paine, Franklin, and Price, as well as material on the slave trade. The Contexts sections on "Town and Country" and on "Mind and God, Faith and Science" have also been expanded; a variety of writings on the Royal Society and other scientific matters have been added to the latter. Additional chapters from Equiano's Interesting Narrative have been added, and there are new selections by Samuel Johnson (including his "Letter to Lord Chesterfield" and facsimile pages from the Dictionary). Book 3 from Gulliver's Travels has been added; that work now appears in its entirety. There are also additional selections by Pope, Pepys, and Astell.

The Castle of Otranto and The Witlings have been moved from the bound book to the website component of the anthology. (Both are available as volumes in the Broadview Editions series, and may be added at a very modest additional cost in a shrink-wrapped combination package.)