This ambitious and provocative study provides a unique narrative of nineteenth-century English political history. Based on extensive research the book draws on critical theory to read and interpret a vast range of oral, visual and printed sources, in an attempt to expand our conception of the politics of the period. Read in the context of such sources, nineteenth-century English politics becomes resolved into a story about the struggle to define the nation's constitution, past, present and future. It suggests the existence of a popular strain of English libertarian politics, albeit one whose radical and democratic potential was gradually closed down. In short, despite the invention of a liberal constitution in this period, politics became less (not more) democratic, a lesson which the author sees as pertinent for many struggling to live in, or establish, liberal democratic constitutions in our own times.

An ambitious reinterpretation of nineteenth-century English politics using oral, visual and printed records.

Book Information
ISBN 9780521115087
Author James Vernon
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 640g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm