This text has established itself as the best short account of the Chartist movement available. It considers its origins and development, placing the movement within its broad social and economic context. Dr Royle also provides clear analysis of its strategy and leadership and assesses the conflicting interpretations for the failure of Chartism.

This text has established itself as the best short account of the Chartist movement available. It considers its origins and development, placing the movement within its broad social and economic context. Dr Royle also provides clear analysis of its strategy and leadership and assesses the conflicting interpretations for the failure of Chartism.

Europe was swept by revolution in the period from 1789 to 1848. Britain, alone of the major western powers, seemed exempt from this revolutionary fervour. The governing class attributed this exemption to divine providence and the soundness of the British Constitution. This view has been upheld by historians for over a century. This book provides students with an alternative view of the potential for revolution and the resources of conservatism in early industrial Britain which challenges many of the common assumptions. Incorporates quotations from primary sources to give the reader a critical sense of why revolution was taken seriously by people at the time. Shows how the revolutionaries were defeated by the government's propaganda against revolutionary sentiments and the strength of popular conservatism. -- .

Praise for the first edition: 'Royle calls on an impressive range of materials (supported by an excellent bibliography) to offer a judicious review of most of the issues currently confronted by social historians. His agenda contains both traditional and novel elements [...] all are presented with admirable clarity and balance. [...] A volume which shows an astonishing command of such a wide range of material will long prove essential reading.' Times Literary Supplement This popular work provides an in-depth historical background to issues of contemporary concern, tracing developments over the past two and a half centuries. It promotes accessibility by adopting a thematic approach, with each theme treated chronologically. Major themes are chosen partly by their importance to an understanding of the past and partly by their relevance to students of contemporary Britain - rather than by imposing current fashions in historical study on the past. Thoroughly revised, the third edition of Modern Britain reviews and brings up to date the content to take account of developments since 1997 and reconsiders emphases and interpretations in light of more recent scholarship. It incorporates new currents in historical writing on matters such as the language of class, the position of women, and the revolution worked by the Internet and mobile technologies. Modern Britain is vital reading for students of history and the social and political sciences.

In 1542 William Ramsden bought his wifes family home at Longley and so began a long association between the Ramsdens and Huddersfield which lasted until Sir John Frecheville Ramsden sold his greatly increased Huddersfield estate to the Corporation in 1920. This collection of essays is published to commemorate the centenary of that event. Seven local historians examine different aspects of the Ramsden familys relationship with the town and its inhabitants, especially in the nineteenth century. The book incorporates new research and gives fresh insights into the events which led to Huddersfield becoming the town that bought itself a century ago.

An advocate of communal living centered around united interest, Robert Owen (1771-1858) began two such communities--one in the United States and one in England. This book examines the latter, detailing its successes and attributing its failures, as much as anything, on the erratic personality of its founder.

For two generations following the overthrow of the absolutist monarchy in France in 1789, European history was punctuated by political upheavals until in 1848 the continent was swept by revolutionary fervour. Britain alone of the major western powers seemed exempt. Why was this? The governing class at the time attributed it to divine providence and the soundness of a constitution already perfected by revolution in 1688. For a century, historians echoed this Victorian complacency about the superiority of the British and dismissed revolutionary outbursts as mere economic protest or the work of trouble-makers. Extensive evidence for revolutionary plotting was dismissed as the product of the fevered imaginations of government spies. This book builds on scholarship, which has challenged this view, and asks the reader to suspend hindsight and take seriously the threat of revolution, from the English Jacobins of the 1790s and the Luddites of 1812 to the Chartists of 1839-48. If the threat was real, the assertion that "Britain was different" ceases to be adequate, so the final section probes more deeply, drawing on recent research to show how the revolutionaries were defeated by the government's propaganda against revolutionary sentiments and the strength of popular conservatism.