English Radicalism, 1550–1850

A study of three centuries of radical ideas and activity in English political and social history.

Glenn Burgess (Edited by), Matthew Festenstein (Edited by)

9780521800174, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 February 2007

390 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.75 kg

"Most historians of political thought will have a keen interest in historiography even if it is not their specialization; all, however, have an interest in the history and development of political ideas. Whichever way you take it, this is a useful, interesting and readable volume." --Sarah Hale, University of London

An exploration of the place of radical ideas and activity in English political and social history over three centuries. Its core concern is whether a long-term history of radicalism can be written. Are the things that historians label 'radical' linked into a single complex radical tradition, or are they separate phenomena linked only by the minds and language of historians? Does the historiography of radicalism uncover a repressed dimension of English history, or is it a construct that serves the needs of the present more than the understanding of the past? The book contains a variety of answers to these questions. As well as an introduction and eleven substantive chapters, it also includes two 'afterwords' which reflect on the implications of the book as a whole for the study of radicalism. The distinguished list of contributors is drawn from a variety of disciplines, including history, political science, and literary studies.

Introduction Glenn Burgess and Matthew Festenstein
1. A politics of emergency in the reign of Elizabeth I Stephen Alford
2. Richard Overton as a milestone of English radical history: the new intertext of the civic ethos in mid-seventeenth-century England Luc Borot
3. Radicalism and the English Revolution Glenn Burgess
4. 'That Kind of People': Late Stuart Radicals and their manifestos: a functional approach Richard Greaves
5. The divine creature and the female citizen: manners, religion, and the two rights strategies in Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindications Gregory Claeys
6. On not inventing the English Revolution: the radical failure of the 1790s as linguistic non-performance? Iain Hampsher-Monk
7. Disconcerting ideas: explaining popular radicalism and popular loyalism in the 1790s Mark Philp
8. The 1790s and the emergence of British radicalism Gregory Claeys
8. Henry Hunt's peep into a prison: the radical discontinuities of imprisonment for debt Margot Finn
9. Jeremy Bentham's radicalism Fred Rosen
10. Religion and the emergence of radicalism in nineteenth-century England J. C. D. Clark
11. Joseph Hume and the Reformation of India 1819–33 Miles Taylor
Afterwords: Radicalism revisited Conal Condren
Radicalism reassessed J. C. Davis.

Subject Areas: Political activism [JPW], Politics & government [JP], History of ideas [JFCX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]