Title: Chartism: A New History

Author: Malcolm Chase

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Price: £18.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Chartism

Category: Chartism

Chartism, the mass movement for democratic rights, dominated British domestic politics in the late 1830s and 1840s. It mobilised over three million supporters at its height. Few modern European social movements, certainly in Britain, have captured the attention of posterity to quite the extent it has done. Encompassing moments of great drama, it is one of the very rare points in British history where it is legitimate to speculate how close the country came to revolution. It is also pivotal to debates around continuity and change in Victorian Britain, gender, language and identity. "Chartism: A New History" is the only book to offer in-depth coverage of the entire chronological spread (1838-58) of this pivotal movement and to consider its rich and varied history in full. Based throughout on original research (including newly discovered material), this is a vivid and compelling narrative of a movement which mobilised three million people at its height. The author deftly intertwines analysis and narrative, interspersing his chapters with short 'Chartist Lives', relating the intimate and personal to the realm of the social and political. This book will become essential reading for anyone with an interest in early Victorian Britain, specialists, students and general readers alike.

Title: Papers for the People

Author: Joan Allen and Owen R. Ashton

Publisher: Merlin Press

Price: £15.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Chartism

Category: Chartism

An original study of the role of the Chartist Press in the campaign for democracy in Victorian Britain, and overseas. A study of the press from 1838 to the late 1850s A wider area is studied: it considers the press in England Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Australia Includes both innovative and revisionist perspectives Almost all of the contributors are well known specialists in the history of Chartism The editors provide a comprehensive introduction setting contributions in context and discuss how these essays expand our knowledge of Chartism Includes a selection of journalism: some of which is available from our website for teachers to freely copy and use.

Title: Chartism After 1848

Author: Keith Flett

Publisher: Merlin Press

Price: £15.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Chartism

Category: Chartism

Based on original research, a study of the campaign for political and social democracy and for workers education, after 1848. This work looks at independent working-class radical education and politics in England from the year of revolutions, 1848 to the passage of the 1870 Education Act. It takes as its starting point Richard Johnson's analysis of really useful knowledge but argues that radical ideas and radical working-class education and schools, far from disappearing after 1848, in fact flourished.

Title: Voices of the People

Author: Robert G. Hall

Publisher: Merlin Press

Price: £15.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Chartism

Category: Chartism

An examination of Chartist democracy viewed 'from below' Considers which groups were more and less vocal in the movement, how political identity intertwined with craft, ethnicity, gender and class. Questions myths, memories, and identities and will appeal to students of history, sociology and culture challenges the approach of Gareth Stedman-Jones, Patrick Joyce and James Vernon This study explores the development and decline of Chartism as a coherent political identity between 1830 and 1860 and illustrates the creation of Chartist identity from the perspective of plebeian intellectuals and activists in Ashton-under-Lyne and other militant localities of Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

Title: Friends of the People

Author: Owen Ashton & Paul A. Pickering

Publisher: Merlin Press

Price: £14.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Chartism

Category: Chartism

This study of six Chartist Leaders portrays movements for democracy and social progress, and explores the role of the uneasy middle classes in campaigns for working-class rights. The comparative analysis provides insights in to the development of dissent, the nature of class and of radicalism in the nineteenth century and an introduction sketches the historical context.

Educational Websites

Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History, HistoryWorld, I Love History,
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20, Sintermeerten, ICT4LT

News and Search

Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times,
Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4, ZDNet,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, Ask, Search,
Go, Looksmart, Dogpile, Raging Search, All the Web, Kartoo, Search Engine Watch, About