British Jacobin Politics, Desires, and Aftermaths (The Enlightenment World)

This book explores the hopes, desires, and imagined futures that characterized British radicalism in the 1790s, and the resurfacing of this sense of possibility in the following decades. The articulation of "Jacobin" sentiments reflected the emotional investments of men and women inspired by the French Revolution and committed to political transformation. The authors emphasize the performative aspects of political culture, and the spaces in which mobilization and expression occurred - including the club room, tavern, coffeehouse, street, outdoor meeting, theater, chapel, courtroom, prison, and convict ship. America, imagined as a site of republican citizenship, and New South Wales, experienced as a space of political exile, widened the scope of radical dreaming. Part 1 focuses on the political culture forged under the shifting influence of the French Revolution. Part 2 explores the afterlives of British Jacobinism in the year 1817, in early Chartist memorialization of the Scottish "martyrs" of 1794, and in the writings of E. P. Thompson. The relationship between popular radicals and the Romantics is a theme pursued in several chapters; a dialogue is sustained across the disciplinary boundaries of British history and literary studies. The volume captures the revolutionary decade's effervescent yearning, and its unruly persistence in later years.

History

Epstein, James

Karr, David

Americas

Routledge

This book explores the hopes, desires, and imagined futures that characterized British radicalism in the 1790s, and the resurfacing of this sense of possibility in the following decades. The articulation of “Jacobin” sentiments reflected the emotional investments of men and women inspired by the French Revolution and committed to political transformation. The authors emphasize the performative aspects of political culture, and the spaces in which mobilization and expression occurred – including the club room, tavern, coffeehouse, street, outdoor meeting, theater, chapel, courtroom, prison, and convict ship. America, imagined as a site of republican citizenship, and New South Wales, experienced as a space of political exile, widened the scope of radical dreaming. Part 1 focuses on the political culture forged under the shifting influence of the French Revolution. Part 2 explores the afterlives of British Jacobinism in the year 1817, in early Chartist memorialization of the Scottish “martyrs” of 1794, and in the writings of E. P. Thompson. The relationship between popular radicals and the Romantics is a theme pursued in several chapters; a dialogue is sustained across the disciplinary boundaries of British history and literary studies. The volume captures the revolutionary decade’s effervescent yearning, and its unruly persistence in later years.

In 1806 General Thomas Picton, Britain's first governor of Trinidad, was brought to trial for the torture of a free mulatto named Louisa Calderon and for overseeing a regime of terror over the island's slave population. James Epstein offers a fascinating account of the unfolding of this colonial drama. He shows the ways in which the trial and its investigation brought empire 'home' and exposed the disjuncture between a national self-image of humane governance and the brutal realities of colonial rule. He uses the trial to open up a range of issues, including colonial violence and norms of justice, the status of the British subject, imperial careering, visions of development after slavery, slave conspiracy and the colonial archive. He reveals how Britain's imperial regime became more authoritarian, hierarchical and militarised but also how unease about abuses of power and of the rights of colonial subjects began to grow.

Scandal of Colonial Rule: Power and Subversion in the British Atlantic during the Age of Revolution (Critical Perspectives on Empire)

Europe

Cambridge University Press

In Practice: Studies in the Language and Culture of Popular Politics in Modern Britain

This book reflects on popular politics in Britain during the turbulent period of industrialization, focusing on how political meanings were produced and sustained. It is also a spirited series of responses to the changing terrain of historical studies. It takes as its starting point the goal of defining a middle ground between E. P. Thompson’s concept of cultural materialism and the postmodern view of culture as a system of signs and codes (with emphasis on the linguistic grounding of experience). The first part of the book evaluates and critiques the work of two of the most influential proponents of the linguistic turn in British historical writing: Gareth Stedman Jones and Patrick Joyce. The second part contains four case studies: the first two treating British political culture in the age of the French Revolution, the third dealing with the role of space in historical reasoning, and the fourth assessing the role of gentleman leaders within popular movements.

Stanford University Press

Lion of Freedom: Feargus O'Connor and the Chartist Movement

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Croom Helm, Ltd.

This book offers an evaluation of the political leadership of Feargus O'Connor, the most prominent leader of the Chartist movement.  This study covers the period from 1832-1842 - from O'Connor's election to Parliament through to the establishment of his ascendency over the national leadership of the Chartist movement.Central to this study is a consideration of the principal institutions of national radical leadership, organisation and agitation - the platform and the mass demonstration, the Chartist Press and National Charter Association. While O'Connor came to prominence in the familiar role of the radical gentleman orator at the mass demonstration which heralded the advent of Chartism, he was able to turn his appeal as a charismatic demagogue towards the creation of more permanent and democratic forms of working-class organisation and leadership.  Not simply a political biography of O'Connor, this book offers a general history of Chartism and provides an interpretive framework for understanding this complex political movement

The Lion of Freedom: Feargus O'Connor and the Chartist Movement, 1832-1842

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Breviary Stuff Publications

Exploring a set of related themes dealing with popular radical language, ideology, and communication in late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century England, Radical Expression re-examines the rhetoric of popular constitutionalism and the associated repertoire of constitutionalist mobilization.  James Epstein argues that, despite the impulses of the French revolution, popular constitutionalism remained the dominant idiom within which radicals framed their democratic demands. The constitutionalist idiom was a "shared" cultural inheritance, a "master fiction" defining England's place in the universe of nations. It was for this reason that radicals struggled to appropriate its language, to give their own accent to its central terms and to tell the "real" story of the nation's constitutional past.  Epstein places particular emphasis on the symbolic and ritual elements within popular radicalism, including chapters on the dense web of meanings associated with the cap of liberty and the rituals of radical commemoration, toasting, and dining. As a counterpoint to the book's emphasis on constitutionalist modes of argumentation and mobilization, the book also includes a sustained consideration of the language, culture, and style of plebeian rationalism.  Radical Expression makes an important contribution to discussions on the formation of political ideologies and communities of opinion. It will be of great interest to those interested in the history of Modern England, social history, and political history.

Radical Expression: Political Language, Ritual, and Symbol in England, 1790-1850

Historical Study & Educational Resources

This six volume set reproduces the complete writings of the London Corresponding Society (LCS) as well as other contemporary literature and parliamentary debates, and reports relating to the Society. The LCS was at the forefront of the call for political reform in the late 18th century.

The London Corresponding Society, 1792-1799 Vol 1

Davis, Michael T

Fruchtman Jr., Jack

Thale, Mary

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Books by Epstein, James

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Epstein, James. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

British Jacobin Politics, Desires, and Aftermaths (The Enlightenment World)

British Jacobin Politics, Desires, and Aftermaths (The Enlightenment World)

Scandal of Colonial Rule: Power and Subversion in the British Atlantic during the Age of Revolution (Critical Perspectives on Empire)

In Practice: Studies in the Language and Culture of Popular Politics in Modern Britain

In Practice: Studies in the Language and Culture of Popular Politics in Modern Britain

Lion of Freedom: Feargus O'Connor and the Chartist Movement

The Lion of Freedom: Feargus O'Connor and the Chartist Movement, 1832-1842

Radical Expression: Political Language, Ritual, and Symbol in England, 1790-1850

Scandal of Colonial Rule: Power and Subversion in the British Atlantic during the Age of Revolution (Critical Perspectives on Empire)

The London Corresponding Society, 1792-1799 Vol 1