Eighteenth-Century English Society: Shuttles and Swords (Opus Books) - Softcover

Hay, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192891944 ISBN 13: 9780192891945

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 1988

Synopsis

The period from 1688-1820 was marked throughout with riots and rebellions, seditions and strikes, as the lower classes rebelled against the state bias towards the interests of higher social groups. Drawing on recent work on demography, labor, and law, this readable history of the period focuses on the experience of the eighty percent of the population who made up England's "lower orders." Hay and Rogers provide fresh insights into food shortages, changes in poor relief, use of the criminal law, and the shifts in social power caused by industrialization that would bring about the birth of working-class radicalism.

About this title

Review:

This text worked well for students who had little prior knowledge of the subject. It combines factual information and vivid description in a way that is useful and holds students' interest. The authors' strongly stated interpretation of power relations in 18th-century English society stimulated fruitful discussion in the classroom. (Marilyn Morris, University of North Texas)

Synopsis:

The period from 1688-1820 was marked throughout with riots and rebellions, seditions and strikes. Yet it began with the welcoming of Prince William of Orange, whose coronation was widely celebrated as a move towards a more democratic state. Parliament and the courts were set to become a central feature of political life. But in 1819, fifteen men, women, and children were killed and over 400 injured when the yeomanry, directed by the magistracy, attacked the mass meeting for parliamentary reform at St Peter's Field, Manchester. The long eighteenth century was characterized by the gradual erosion of consensual politics: the transfer from a cross-class consensus based on the Whig/Tory divide to divisions based instead on the notion that the state privileged the interests of certain social groups over others. This book draws together the implications of recent work on demography, labour, and law to assess their importance for defining those moments and places where class interests met and conflicted.

By focusing on the experiences of the eighty percent of the population who made up England's 'lower orders', Douglas Hay and Nicholas Rogers accord new significance to food shortages, changes in poor relief, use of the criminal law, and the shifts in social power caused by industrialization which would bring about the birth of working-class radicalism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0192891944
• ISBN 13: 9780192891945
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272