In his penetrating satirical series like The Rakes Progress, and in his paintings of the polite and impolite society of his century, William Hogarth pulled the screen from the vices and follies of his day. In this talk, biographer Jenny Uglow gives a vivid account of his life, personality and work and shows his prints form part of the powerful debates about luxury, speculation and excess that troubled this new, thrusting commercial world.