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.

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.

Political Ideologies: A Reader and Guide provides an extensive collection of extracts from the texts of major intellectuals, politicians, and writers within some of the most important ideological traditions in modern politics, which are interspersed with editorial commentaries. These offer a general historical introduction to each thinker and the particular text, highlight key thematic features of the passages and alert the reader to significant overlaps and points of difference between different authors within and across different ideological traditions. This is the first volume to provide such an extensive range of texts and to cover both established and newer political ideologies. The volume illustrates the complex evolution of ideological traditions in various national settings and highlights how these developed through rival interpretations of some of the key concepts of modern political discourse.