Chartism, the mass movement for democratic rights, dominated British domestic politics in the late 1830s and 1840s. It mobilised over three million supporters at its height. Few modern European social movements, certainly in Britain, have captured the attention of posterity to quite the extent it has done. Encompassing moments of great drama, it is one of the very rare points in British history where it is legitimate to speculate how close the country came to revolution. It is also pivotal to debates around continuity and change in Victorian Britain, gender, language and identity....

This book traces the development of agrarian ideas from the 1770s through to Chartism, and seeks to explain why, in an era of industrialization and urban growth, land remained one of the major issues in popular politics. Malcolm Chase considers the relationship between 'land consciousness' and early socialism; attempts to create alternative communities; and contemporary perceptions of nature and the environment. He concludes that, far from being an anachronistic, utopian, and reactionary movement, agrarianism was an integral part of the working class experience and of radical politics. The...

Once the heartland of British labour history, trade unionism has been marginalised in much recent scholarship. In a critical survey from the earliest times to the nineteenth century, this book argues for its reinstatement. Trade unionism is shown to be both intrinsically important and to provide a window onto the broader historical landscape; the evolution of trade union principles and practices is traced from the seventeenth century to mid-Victorian times. Underpinning this survey is an explanation of labour organisation that reaches back to the fourteenth century. Throughout, the emphasis...

1820 is about much more than a single year. Integrating in detail the experiences of both Britain and Ireland, Chase provides a compelling narrative and analysis of the United Kingdom in a year of European revolution. This fascinating study charts the events and forces that tested the government almost to its limits, and the processes and mechanisms through which order was maintained. Locating the Queen Caroline divorce crisis within a broader analysis of the challenges confronting the government, it places that much-investigated episode in a new light. It illuminates both the pivotal Tory...

1820 is about much more than a single year. Integrating in detail the experiences of both Britain and Ireland, Chase provides a compelling narrative and analysis of the United Kingdom in a year of European revolution. This fascinating study charts the events and forces that tested the government almost to its limits, and the processes and mechanisms through which order was maintained. Locating the Queen Caroline divorce crisis within a broader analysis of the challenges confronting the government, it places that much-investigated episode in a new light. It illuminates both the pivotal Tory...

This book explores some of the main channels and by-ways in the history of Chartism a middle class movement in mid-19th-century Britain that attempted to bring about political reform. Considering the place of Chartism within the wider framework of Victorian politics, this study also evaluates topics such as the impact of Canada s rebellions on Chartism, Chartism s endurance in Wales beyond the 1839 Rising, the role of children in campaigning, and Chartism s impact on the mid-Victorian ethos of self-help and the workings of parliamentary democracy. Written in an open, accessible style, this...