Chartism Bibliography: Causes and Local Studies

What caused Chartism?

On the 1830s and the Whigs in general, see Geoffrey Finlayson England in the Eighteen Thirties, Edward Arnold, 1969, Ian Newbould Whiggery and Reform 1830-41: the politics of government, Macmillan, 1990 and Peter Mandler Aristocratic Government in the Age of Reform, Oxford University Press, 1990 are useful for the Whig reform. Patricia Hollis The Pauper Press: A Study in Working-Class Radicalism of the 1830s, Oxford University Press, 1970, W.H. Wickwar The Struggle for the Freedom of the Press 1819-1832, London, 1928 and Joel Wiener The War of the Unstamped, Ithaca, 1969 are essential on the agitation to abolish newspaper taxes. Anthony Brundage The Making of the New Poor Law 1833-39, Hutchinson, 1979, Ann Digby The Poor Law in Nineteenth Century England and Wales, The Historical Association, 1982, D. Fraser (ed.) The New Poor Law in the Nineteenth Century, Macmillan, 1976 and Michael Rose The Relief of Poverty 1834-1914, 2nd, ed., Macmillan, 1985 are the most useful books on the introduction and operation of the ‘new’ poor law. Anthony Brundage The English Poor Laws 1700-1930, Palgrave, 2001 provides a longer perspective. Opposition to the introduction of the 1834 Act can be found in Nicholas Edsall The Anti-Poor Law Movement 1833-1844, Manchester University Press, 1971 and John Knott Popular Opposition to the 1834 Poor Law, Croom Helm, 1985.

Local Studies.

Asa Briggs (ed.) Chartist Studies, Macmillan, 1959 was the starting-point for this type of local study and, despite its age still has considerable value both as a model for how historians can approach local and regional studies and as a substantive collection of essays on a variety of areas. Roger Wells ‘Southern Chartism’, Rural History 2, (1991) reprinted in John Rule and Roger Wells Crime, Protest and Popular Politics in Southern England 1740-1850, Hambledon Press, 1997, pages 127-152 and A.E.J. Brown Chartism in Essex and Suffolk, Chelmsford, 1982 are the best studies of Chartism in a rural context. Paul A. Pickering Chartism and the Chartists in Manchester and Salford, Macmillan, 1995, A.J. Peacock Bradford Chartism 1838-1840, York, 1969 and David Goodway London Chartism 1838-1848, Cambridge University Press, 1982 are valuable studies of urban Chartism. David Large ‘London in the Year of Revolution, 1848’ in John Stevenson (ed.) London in the Age of Reform, Blackwell, 1977, pages 177-211 looks at a particular year.

On Chartism in Scotland, see Alexander Wilson The Chartist Movement in Scotland, Manchester University Press, 1970, Alexander Wilson ‘Chartism in Glasgow’, in Asa Briggs (ed.) Chartist Studies, Macmillan, 1959, pages 249-287 and Leslie Wright Scottish Chartism Oliver & Boyd, 1953. W.H. Fraser ‘The Scottish Context of Chartism’, in Terry Brotherstone (ed.) Covenant, Charter and Party: Traditions of Revolt and Protest in Modern Scottish History, Aberdeen University Press, 1989, pages 63-77 looks at the subject in the light of recent research. David Williams ‘Chartism in Wales’, in Asa Briggs (ed.) Chartist Studies, Macmillan, 1959, pages 220-248 provides a starting point for Wales, though Ivor Wilks and David J.V. Jones contest his conclusions on Newport.

Roger Swift The Irish in Britain 1815-1914. Perspectives and Sources, The Historical Association, 1990 is a brief general survey invaluable for setting the issue in context. More detail can be found in Dorothy Thompson ‘Ireland and the Irish in English Radicalism before 1850’, in James Epstein and Dorothy Thompson (eds.) The Chartist Experience, Macmillan, 1982, pages 120-152 and J.H. Treble ‘O’Connor, O’Connell and the Attitudes of Irish immigrants towards Chartism in the North of England 1838-48’, in J. Butt and I.F. Clarke (eds.) The Victorians and Social Protest, David & Charles, 1973, pages 33-70. R. O’ Higgins ‘The Irish Influence in the Chartist Movement’, Past and Present, no. 20 (1961), pages 83-96 and John Belchem ‘English Working-Class Radicalism and the Irish 1815-50’, in Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley (eds.) The Irish in the Victorian City, Croom Helm, 1985, pages 85-97 are the best guide to the controversy about the extent of Irish involvement in England popular radicalism.