Description
Book SynopsisThis 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 collection, firmly located within Britain s tradition of writing history from below, offers an unusually wide variety of stimulating perspectives on key issues in the history of what, effectively, was Britain s civil rights movement.'
Table of ContentsThe People's Charter of 1838: The Chartist legacy for parliamentary democracy; The leading question in Chartist historiography; 'Our brothers in the holy cause of freedom': British radical responses to the Canadian Rebellions of 1837-38; 'We wish only to work for ourselves': the Chartist Land Plan; 'Wholesome object lessons': the Chartist Land Plan in retrospect; Rethinking Welsh Chartism; The Chartist Penny Almanack; 'Labour's candidates': Chartism at the parliamentary polls; Chartism and 1848; Resolved in defiance of fool and of knave?: Chartism, children and conflict; Chartism and the land: 'The mighty people's question'; Out of radicalism: the mid-Victorian Freehold Land Movement. Index.
