Voices of the People: Democracy and Chartist Political Identity, 1830i1870

by Robert G. Hall

Overview

Considering how political identity intertwines with craft, ethnicity, gender, and class, this study explores the development and decline of Chartism between 1830 and 1860 through the perspective of plebeian intellectuals and activists in Ashton-under-Lyne and other militant localities of Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Challenging the approach of Patrick Joyce, Gareth Stedman-Jones, and James Vernon, this account questions myths and memories and provides a cultural and sociological view of the period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780850365573
Publisher:	Merlin Press Limited, The
Publication date:	10/01/2007
Edition description:	1ST

About the Author

Robert G. Hall is an assistant professor of history at Ball State University–Muncie. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Table of Contents

List of Tables     vi
Acknowledgements     viii
Introduction. Locality and Nation: Democracy and Chartist Political Identity     1
The Art and Craft of Mule Spinning: Masculinity, Skill and the Gender Division of Labour, 1790-1860     9
What is a Chartist?: Defining a Democratic Political Identity, 1838-1842     31
Myth and Reality: The Experience of Defeat, 1839-1842     63
A United People?: Leaders and Followers in a Chartist Locality, 1838-1848     85
Liberalization versus Radicalization: Some Causes and Consequences of the Decline of Chartism, 1848-1860     104
Conclusion. Chartism Remembered: William Aitken, Liberalism and the Politics of Memory     140
Tables     159
Notes     167
Index     213

Editorial Reviews

"Hall’s book provides both some stimulating new research and approaches and a useful but not overstated riposte to some of the revisionist approaches that have claimed that Chartism never amounted to anything much anyway."  —International Socialism Journal

From the Publisher