Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act - Softcover

Thompson, E. P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0957000529 ISBN 13: 9780957000520

Publisher: Breviary Stuff Publications, 2013

Synopsis

With Whigs and Hunters, the author of The Making of the English Working Class, E. P. Thompson plunged into the murky waters of the early eighteenth century to chart the violently conflicting currents that boiled beneath the apparent calm of the time. The subject is the Black Act, a law of unprecedented savagery passed by Parliament in 1723 to deal with 'wicked and evil-disposed men going armed in disguise'. These men were pillaging the royal forest of deer, conducting a running battle against the forest officers with blackmail, threats and violence. These 'Blacks', however, were men of some substance; their protest (for such it was) took issue with the equally wholsesale plunder of the forest by Whig nominees to the forest offices. And Robert Walpole, still consolidating his power, took an active part in the prosecution of the 'Blacks'. The episode is laden with political and social implications, affording us glimpses of considerable popular discontent, political chicanery, judicial inequity, corrupt ambition and crime.

About this title

Product Description:

Title: Whigs and Hunters <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: E.P.Thompson <>Publisher: BreviaryStuffPublications

About this edition

• Publisher: Breviary Stuff Publications
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0957000529
• ISBN 13: 9780957000520
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278