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)

9780521180818, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 February 2011

390 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.52 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]