Examining the domestic politics of imperial expansion these essays question the role of the Industrial Revolution and British imperial leadership beyond the issue of hierarchy and The Great Divergence. This volume brings together leading global economic historians to honour Patrick O'Brien's contribution to the establishment of global economic history as a coherent and respected field in the academy. Inspired by O'Brien's seminal work on the British Industrial Revolution as a global phenomenon, these essays expand the role of the Industrial Revolution and British imperial leadership beyond the issue of hierarchy and The Great Divergence. The change from the protective Atlantic empire, 1650-1850, to the free trade empire of the last half of the long nineteenth century is elaborated as are the conscious efforts of the free trade empire to develop markets and market economies in Africa. British domestic politics associated with the change and the continuation to the recent politics of Brexit are fascinatingly narrated and documented, including the economic rationale for imperial expansion, in the first instance. The narrative continues to the crises of globalization caused by the world wars and the Great Depression, which forced the free trade British Empire to change course. Further, the effects of the crises and the imperial reaction on the East African colonies and on New Zealand and Australia are examined. Given current concerns about the environmental impact of economic activities, it is noteworthy that this volume includes the environmental impact of globalization in India caused by the free trade policy of the British free trade empire.

Richard Cobden (1804-65) rose from humble beginnings to become the leading advocate of nineteenth-century free-trade and liberalism. As a fierce opponent of the Corn Laws and promoter of international trade he rapidly became an influential figure on the national stage, whose name became a byword for political and economic reform. Yet despite the familiarity with which contemporaries and historians refer to 'Cobdenism' his ideals and beliefs are not always easy to identify and classify in a coherent way. Indeed, as this volume makes clear, the variety, diversity and malleability of the 'Cobdenite project' attest to the lack of a strict dogma and highlight Cobden's underlying pragmatism. Divided into five sections, this collection of essays offers a timely reassessment of Cobden's career, its impact and legacy in the two hundred years since his birth. Beginning with an investigation into the intellectual and cultural background to his emergence as a national political figure, the volume then looks at Cobden's impact on the making of Victorian liberal politics. The third section examines Cobden's wider influence in Europe, particularly the impact of his tour of 1846-47 which was in many ways a defining moment not only in the making of Cobden's liberalism but in the making of liberal Europe. Section four broadens the theme of Cobden's contemporary impact, including his contribution to the debate on peace, internationalism and the American Civil War; whilst the final section opens up the theme of Cobden's contested legacy, the variety of interpretations of Cobden's ideas and their influence on late nineteenth- and twentieth-century politics. Offering a broad yet coherent investigation of the 'Cobdenite project' by leading international scholars, this volume provides a fascinating insight into one of the nineteenth century's most important figures whose ideas still resonate today.

After the collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization talks, agricultural subsidies and market liberalization went high on the political agenda. This work features historical documents that address the thorny relationship between trade and politics, the appropriate role of international regulation, and domestic concerns.

Richard Cobden (1804-1865) rose from humble beginnings to become the leading advocate of nineteenth-century free-trade and liberalism. As a fierce opponent of the Corn Laws and promoter of international trade he rapidly became an influential figure on the national stage, whose name became a byword for political and economic reform. Yet, despite the familiarity with which contemporaries and historians refer to 'Cobdenism', his ideals and beliefs are not always easy to identify and classify in a coherent way. Indeed, as this volume makes clear, the variety, diversity and malleability of the 'Cobdenite project' attest to the lack of a strict dogma and highlight Cobden's underlying pragmatism. Divided into five sections, this collection of essays offers a timely reassessment of Cobden's career, its impact and legacy in the two hundred years since his birth. Beginning with an investigation into the intellectual and cultural background to his emergence as a national political figure, the volume then looks at Cobden's impact of the making of Victorian liberal politics.The third section develops many insights from Cobden's European Tour of 1846-47 which was in many ways a defining moment not only in the making of Cobden's liberalism but in the making of liberal Europe. Section four broadens the theme of Cobden's contemporary international impact, including his contribution to the debate on internationalism, India, the empire and the American Civil War; whilst the final section opens up the theme of Cobden's contested legacy, the variety of interpretations of Cobden's ideas and how their influence on late nineteenth and early twentieth century politics. Offering a broad yet coherent investigation of the 'Cobdenite project' by leading international scholars, this volume provides a fascinating insight into one of the nineteenth century's most important figures whose ideas still resonate today.

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library. Byron and the Forms of Thought is a major new study of Byron as a poet and thinker. While informed by recent work on Byron's philosophical contexts, the book questions attempts to describe Byron as a philosopher of a particular kind. It approaches Byron, rather, as a writer fascinated by the different ways of thinking philosophy and poetry are taken to represent. After an Introduction that explores Byron's reception as a thinker, the book moves to a new reading of Byron's scepticism, arguing for a close proximity, in Byron's thought, between epistemology and poetics. This is explored through readings of Byron's efforts both as a philosophical poet and writer of critical prose. The conclusions reached form the basis of an extended reading of Don Juan as a critical narrative that investigates connections between visionary and political consciousness. What emerges is a deeply thoughtful poet intrigued and exercised by the possibilities of literary form.

Romanticism and the Letter is a collection of essays that explore various aspects of letter writing in the Romantic period of British Literature. Although the correspondence of the Romantics constitutes a major literary achievement in its own right, it has received relatively little critical attention. Essays focus on the letters of major poets, including Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats; novelists and prose writers, including Jane Austen, Leigh Hunt and Charles Lamb; and lesser-known writers such as Melesina Trench and Mary Leadbeater. Moving from theories of letter writing, through the period's diverse epistolary culture, to essays on individual writers, the collection opens new perspectives for students and scholars of the Romantic period.

Romanticism and the Letter is a collection of essays that explore various aspects of letter writing in the Romantic period of British Literature. Although the correspondence of the Romantics constitutes a major literary achievement in its own right, it has received relatively little critical attention. Essays focus on the letters of major poets, including Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats; novelists and prose writers, including Jane Austen, Leigh Hunt and Charles Lamb; and lesser-known writers such as Melesina Trench and Mary Leadbeater. Moving from theories of letter writing, through the period's diverse epistolary culture, to essays on individual writers, the collection opens new perspectives for students and scholars of the Romantic period.

The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley takes stock of current developments in the study of a major Romantic poet and prose-writer, and seeks to advance Shelley studies in new directions. It consists of forty-two chapters written by an international cast of established and emerging scholar-critics. This Handbook is divided into five thematic sections: Biography and Relationships; Prose; Poetry; Cultures, Traditions, Influences; and Afterlives. The first section reappraises Shelley's life and relationships, including those with his publishers through whom he sought to reach an audience for the 'Ashes and sparks' of his thought, and with women, creative collaborators as well as muse-figures. The second section gives his under-investigated prose works detailed attention, bringing multiple perspectives to bear on his conceptual positions, and demonstrating the range of his achievement in prose works from novels to political and poetic treatises. The third section explores Shelley's creativity and gift as a poet, emphasizing his capacity to excel in many different poetic genres. The fourth section looks at Shelley's response to past and present literary cultures, both English and international, and at his immersion in science, music, theatre, the visual arts, and travel. The fifth section concludes the volume by analysing Shelley's literary and cultural afterlife, from his influence on Victorians and Moderns, to his status as the exemplary poet for Deconstruction. Packed with stimulating insights and readings, The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley brings out the relevance to Shelley's own work of his dictum that 'All high poetry is infinite' .

The Letters of Richard Cobden (1804-1865) provides, in four printed volumes, the first critical edition of Cobden's letters, publishing the complete text in as near the original form as possible. The letters are accompanied by full scholarly apparatus, together with an introduction to each volume which re-assesses Cobden's importance in their light. Together, these volumes make available a unique source of the understanding of British liberalism in its European and international contexts, throwing new light on issues such as the repeal of the Corn Laws, British radical movements, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, Anglo-French relations, and the American Civil War.
The third volume, drawing on some forty-seven archives worldwide, reveals the tension between public and private life experienced by Cobden from 1854 until 1859. As prospects for reform at home diminished, he became the prototype for the group A. J. P. Taylor famously called the 'Trouble Makers', articulating a wide-ranging critique of British foreign policy with regard to the Crimean War, Anglo-American relations, the Indian 'Mutiny', and British expansion in Asia. An arch antagonist of the Prime Minister Palmerston, in early 1857 he dramatically defeated the government in the House of Commons over British naval intervention in China (the Arrow incident), and in 1858 played a major part in resisting Britain's annexation of Sarawak. Privately, Cobden experienced anguish at the death of his fifteen-year-old son at school in Germany in 1856, heightened by the inconsolability of his wife Catherine. He was also beset by financial worries, prompting a second visit to the United States in 1859 where he was welcomed as a celebrity, though his primary purpose was to investigate the prospects of the Illinois Central Railroad following the 1857 global financial crisis. On return to Britain, he found himself once more at the forefront of British politics, rejecting an unexpected offer of office in Palmerston's new Cabinet: the first 'modern' Liberal government.
The volume concludes with Cobden's lengthy stay in Paris. There, with the support of his friend the French economist Michel Chevalier, and against the background of recent war in Italy and growing Anglo-French antagonism, he was on the brink of completing the negotiation of the path-breaking Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1860: his most important achievement since the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, and a vital step towards free trade and peace in Europe.

The first of four volumes, this book provides a unique insight into the career of one of Britain's leading nineteenth-century politicians. Richard Cobden (1804-1865) moved rapidly from business success in Manchester into the worlds of local, national and international politics, providing a case study in social mobility in the Industrial Revolution. He traveled extensively, visiting the United States, the Near East, and the continent writing influential pamphlets, before undertaking the campaign against the British Corn Laws for which he remains best known.
Drawing on material from Britain, Europe, and the United States, the letters are accompanied by notes and an introduction by Anthony Howe, explaining the unusual history of the letters and re-assessing Cobden's importance in their light. But the letters reveal not only Cobden the anti-corn law crusader, but provide us with a greater understanding of wider aspects of middle class politics and culture in their formative period in Britain and Europe. Together, these four volumes provide a unique source on British liberalism in its European and international contexts, throwing new light on issues such as the repeal of the Corn Laws, the British radical movements, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, and the American Civil War.

The argument about the limits of Free Trade or Protectionism rages throughout the world to this day. Following the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, free trade became one of the most distinctive defining features of the British state, and of British economic, social, and political life. While the United States, much of the British Empire, and the leading European Powers turned towards protectionism before 1914, Britain alone held to a policy which had seemingly guaranteed power and prosperity. This book seeks to explain the political history of this tenacious loyalty. While the Tariff Reform opponents of free trade have been much studied, this is the first substantial account, based on a wide range of printed and archival sources, which explains the primacy of free trade in nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Britain. It also shows that by the centenary of the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1946, although British free traders lamented the death of Liberal England, they heralded, under American leadership, the rebirth of the liberal international order.

After the recent collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization talks, agricultural subsidies and market liberalization are high on the political agenda. This exciting four-volume reset edition charts the evolution of free trade from the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1776, to the present day. Carefully-selected historical documents address the thorny relationship between trade and politics, the appropriate role of international regulation, domestic concerns about foreign competition, and multilateral trade agreements. Rare and difficult-to-access documents from national governments, economic interest groups, the media and individuals are sourced from archives in the US and the UK. Much of the material included has not been published before.