Description
Book SynopsisCaptures the substance and scale of popular politics and protest in Bristol over the course of the long eighteenth century. Bristol from Below captures the substance and scale of popular politics and protest in Bristol over the course of the long eighteenth century. It charts the lives of ordinary Bristolians in the making of their city and devotes particular attention to their relationship with the mercantile elites who dominated the city's governing institutions. While not ignoring the contribution of the middling sort to the cultural and political life of the city, the book focusses upon the interaction between authority and plebeian sentiment as a way of analysing the complexities of popular interventions in politics and society. It casts new light on the social dynamics of Bristol's 'goldenage' and how it is remembered in today's city. It also addresses the general themes of class, authority, custom and law that have long engaged eighteenth-century historians. Bristol From Below will have a broad appeal to scholars and students of eighteenth-century social, economic and political history as well as to urban and regional historians and to those interested in the time when Bristol was England's 'Second City'. STEVE POOLE is Professor of History and Heritage at the University of the West of England, Bristol. NICHOLAS ROGERS is Distinguished Research Professor in History at York University, Toronto.
Trade Review[This] fine study of Bristol is a valuable and interesting contribution to renewed debates about how urban inhabitants reacted to the major social, economic and political changes of this era....[It] is an essential addition to our understanding of eighteenth-century popular politics, protest and local government. * HISTORY *
Bristol from Below is, to conclude, one of the finest works of regional history from below that has been published in recent years: a triumph of the form. Poole and Rodgers should be congratulated on their achievement. * HISTOIRE SOCIALE / SOCIAL HISTORY *
Places the history of Georgian Bristol on a new and most welcome footing. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
A vigorous account of... true stories, some darkly comic, some tragic, nearly all highly dramatic. * BRISTOL & GLOUCESTERSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY *
A compelling and vivid portrait of a bustling, enterprising and often lawless and violent city. There is nothing boring about 18th century Bristol and the authors know it. * BRISTOL TIMES *
[An] important and richly documented volume. . . . Bristol from Below undoubtedly adds enormously to our understanding of popular politics in a major urban center during the Georgian era. -- Peter Borsay * Journal of British Studies *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Bristol: Prospects and Profiles Voices in the Crowd Authority, Class and Clientage in Bristol Politics Wreckers from Without: Weavers, Colliers, Arsonists and Sodomites, 1729-34 Popular Jacobitism and the Politics of Provocation Anger and Reprisals: the Struggle against Turnpikes and their Projectors, 1727-53 'It is better to stand like men than to starve in the land of plenty': Food Riots and Market Regulation in Bristol Naval Impressment in Bristol, 1739-1815 Bristol and the War of American Independence A Loyal City? The Diversity of Dissent in Bristol in the 1790s Hunt and Liberty: Popular Politics in Bristol, 1800-20 'This is the blaze of Liberty!' The Burning of Bristol in 1831 Postscript Bibliography
