Chartism: A New History

by Malcolm Chase

Chartism, the mass movement for democratic rights, dominated British domestic politics in the late 1830s and 1840s. It mobilized 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.

Genres: History, British Literature, Politics

464 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2007

Reviews

[Gareth Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read some history books because splendid writers tell interesting stories and some because I want specifically to know about a particular issue. Of course, there is a degree of overlap between the two categories, and my ideal book has both. Chase’s Chartists tends toward the latter category. It is strong on detail, but other than that it is not a compelling read. If you want Chartist history, this is probably a good starting point, if you are seeking an especially entertaining read, then perhaps choose a different book. Although this is not to say that Chase is a poor writer.

The book is a good blow-by-blow description of Chartism, and it strikes me that this rather amorphous movement is a difficult subject to wrote about.

I did detect a number of errors, and there may be more which I was not at all qualified to detect. The errors, if they are errors are:

The book implies that the Boston Tea Party occurred in 1776. This is, I believe incorrect.

The is an implication that the anglicisation of Erddig as Erthig continues to Earthrigg as an area in Trinidad located under the main runway of the airport. My simple Google searches find Chase as the only source for this. However, there is an Erthig as a district in Trinidad’s capital city.

Finally, Chase indicates that there was trouble between the Operative Anti Corn Law organisation and Chartists in 1839 in Manchester. Newspapers give very similar descriptions of trouble in Stevenson Square in Manchester (which correspond with all Chase’s details) in 1841.

For me this was an interesting read, and because I had a particular need to to understand Chartism very much a page turner. However, it lacks the dynamic sweep of less detailed popular histories.

[Jane Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's often asked why Britain never had a revolution in the 18th or 19th centuries, as so many other countries did. Chase's excellent book goes a long way to answering that. He describes in detail the rise and fall of Chartism, interspersing the story with accounts of individual Chartists' lives. The research is impeccable and Chase makes it all very readable. This should be required reading for would-be revolutionaries today.