It is forty years since there has been a full-scale study of Chartism in Scotland and since then study of Chartism have been transformed. This new study makes use of the new approaches but also recognises the importance of setting events and attitudes within the wider context of social, political and religious movements that were affecting Scotland between 1830 and the end of the 1860s. The process of industrialisation that had emerged slowly in all but a small number of areas was speeding up and this was creating huge changes for working people not only in the big cities but in towns and villages across Scotland. The decades of the eighteen thirties, forties and fifties were also ones when there was intense intellectual debate about relations with the rest of Britain, about the place of religion in the state, about the relationship between social classes and about the nature of politics. The Chartist movement in Scotland, while conscious of being part of a wider working-class political movement, has to be seen in the context of these debates. Making extensive use of both the Chartist press and local newspapers this comprehensive re-examination of Scottish Chartism sheds much new light on the activities of Chartists in localities from Orkney and Wick in the north of Scotland to Dumfries in the south. It challenges the long-held view that Chartism in Scotland was markedly moderate in its demands and approaches compared with the movement in England.

At the height of his popularity as a leader of the Chartists' campaign for democratic reform in Britain, Feargus O'Connor (1794-1855) enjoyed the support of millions of working people. But his role in the history of British radical politics is only half the story. More than any other popular leader of his generation O'Connor sought to bring those he called the "working Saxon and Celt" together in a common struggle - an aspiration that had its roots deep in the Irish past. This book restores the Irish dimension of O'Connor's career to its proper place by offering, for the first time, an evaluation of his heritage, his ideas and his public life on both sides of the Irish Sea. It is an important story that is worth rescuing for readers in both Britain and Ireland.

Chartism, the mass movement for democratic rights, dominated British domestic politics in the late 1830s and 1840s. It mobilised over three million supporters at its height. Few modern European social movements, certainly in Britain, have captured the attention of posterity to quite the extent it has done. Encompassing moments of great drama, it is one of the very rare points in British history where it is legitimate to speculate how close the country came to revolution. It is also pivotal to debates around continuity and change in Victorian Britain, gender, language and identity. "Chartism: A New History" is the only book to offer in-depth coverage of the entire chronological spread (1838-58) of this pivotal movement and to consider its rich and varied history in full. Based throughout on original research (including newly discovered material), this is a vivid and compelling narrative of a movement which mobilised three million people at its height. The author deftly intertwines analysis and narrative, interspersing his chapters with short 'Chartist Lives', relating the intimate and personal to the realm of the social and political. This book will become essential reading for anyone with an interest in early Victorian Britain, specialists, students and general readers alike.

An original study of the role of the Chartist Press in the campaign for democracy in Victorian Britain, and overseas. A study of the press from 1838 to the late 1850s A wider area is studied: it considers the press in England Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Australia Includes both innovative and revisionist perspectives Almost all of the contributors are well known specialists in the history of Chartism The editors provide a comprehensive introduction setting contributions in context and discuss how these essays expand our knowledge of Chartism Includes a selection of journalism: some of which is available from our website for teachers to freely copy and use.

Based on original research, a study of the campaign for political and social democracy and for workers education, after 1848. This work looks at independent working-class radical education and politics in England from the year of revolutions, 1848 to the passage of the 1870 Education Act. It takes as its starting point Richard Johnson's analysis of really useful knowledge but argues that radical ideas and radical working-class education and schools, far from disappearing after 1848, in fact flourished.

An examination of Chartist democracy viewed 'from below' Considers which groups were more and less vocal in the movement, how political identity intertwined with craft, ethnicity, gender and class. Questions myths, memories, and identities and will appeal to students of history, sociology and culture challenges the approach of Gareth Stedman-Jones, Patrick Joyce and James Vernon This study explores the development and decline of Chartism as a coherent political identity between 1830 and 1860 and illustrates the creation of Chartist identity from the perspective of plebeian intellectuals and activists in Ashton-under-Lyne and other militant localities of Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

This study of six Chartist Leaders portrays movements for democracy and social progress, and explores the role of the uneasy middle classes in campaigns for working-class rights. The comparative analysis provides insights in to the development of dissent, the nature of class and of radicalism in the nineteenth century and an introduction sketches the historical context.