English Radicalism, 1550–1850: Tradition or Fabrication?

Cambridge University Press
Edition: 1st Edition, 2/1/2007
EAN 9780521800174, ISBN10: 052180017X

Hardcover, 390 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English

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.

"...this is a fine book that will be compulsory reading for any student of the development of oppositional political ideas in England."
-Paul Pickering, H-Albion

"The introduction, eleven content chapters, and the two afterwords are written by distinguished scholars of English history or political theory, who draw upon career's worth of work and reflection to move effortlessly and seamlessly across a spectrum of topics and personalities. The result is an exceedingly learned book that ought to find a home in the library of many scholars."
Jeffrey R. Wigelworth, Canadian Journal of History

"The essays are clearly written, free of jargon, and point toward a more precise notion of radicalism in a traditional society...Predictable differences of agenda and tone notwithstanding, these essays show the potential for redefining the notion of radicalism itself." --CHOICE

"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