British Political Culture and the Idea of ‘Public Opinion', 1867–1914

An examination of how 'public opinion' functioned as a concept in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain.

James Thompson (Author)

9781107026797, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 August 2013

299 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.55 kg

'… there is plenty of rich and exciting material here, and the collection is doubtless a useful addition to the existing scholarship.' Ben Weinstein, Reviews in History

Newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets and books all reflect the ubiquity of 'public opinion' in political discourse in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. Through close attention to debates across the political spectrum, James Thompson charts the ways in which Britons sought to locate 'public opinion' in an era prior to polling. He shows that 'public opinion' was the principal term through which the link between the social and the political was interrogated, charted and contested and charts how the widespread conviction that the public was growing in power raised significant issues about the kind of polity emerging in Britain. He also examines how the early Labour party negotiated the language of 'public opinion' and sought to articulate Labour interests in relation to those of the public. In so doing he sheds important new light on the character of Britain's liberal political culture and on Labour's place in and relationship to that culture.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: rethinking public opinion in late nineteenth-century Britain
1. An open demos? The public and the question of membership
2. The ghost in the machine: locating public opinion
3. The mind of the nation? Reason and the public
4. Political economy and the idea of 'public opinion'
5. Representing labour: the labour movement, politics and the public
6. Conclusion: 'public opinion' and political culture in Britain, 1870–1914.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]