Friends of the People

The ‘Uneasy’ Radicals in the Age of the Chartists.

This study of six Chartist leaders portrays movements for democracy and social progress, and explores the role of the middle classes in campaigns for working-class rights. Comparative analysis provides insights into the development of dissent, the nature of class and of radicalism in the nineteenth century, and an introduction sketches the historical context. Dr. Peter M McDouall, of the National Charter Association, from Ramsbottom, Lancashire; Rev. Henry Solly, Chartist pamphleteer and Unitarian Minister from Somerset, Rev. James Scholefield, a vegetarian campaigning chaplain from Manchester, Richard Bagnall Reed, a blacksmith, who became the manager of the Newcastle Chronicle, William Villiers Sankey, an aristocrat, son of an Irish Volunteer and Edinburgh MP, Rev. Benjamin Parsons, a radical and political preacher from Gloucestershire.

‘a significant addition to scholarship on the subject... For those who teach Chartism, at whatever level, this will be a useful and instructive book to add to the reading lists. Each essay can be read on its own, and taken together, they would provide a sound basis for a class discussion on the national and local dimensions of Chartism. Moreover, like the other books in the series published by Merlin Press, it is very reasonably priced’ History.

‘fills a gap in Chartist historiography and provides a valuable opportunity to compare the backgrounds and contributions of six Chartist intellectuals in Britain’ Labour History. ‘meticulous research and command of a phenomenal range of both contemporary material and often obscure secondary literature’ Labour History Review.

‘You need to read it to fully appreciate the richness of these studies’ North East History. ‘the research behind these deftly painted vignettes is impeccable.’ Journal of British Studies.