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John Bright: Statesman, Orator, Agitator
John Bright was one of the greatest British statesmen of the 19th century: in a series of Punch cartoons in 1878, Bright featured alongside Disraeli and Gladstone as the three greatest politicians of the age. However, his impressive contribution to British politics and society has been virtually forgotten in the modern world. Bright played a critical role in many of the most important political movements of the Victorian era - most notably, the Anti-Corn Law League, which he founded with Richard Cobden in 1838 and which played a significant role in obtaining the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846. He was also a vehement opponent of capital punishment and supported free trade, electoral reform, and religious freedom. He was internationally renowned as an excellent speaker and a copy of one of his speeches was found in the pocket of Abraham Lincoln on the day of his assassination. In this new biography, the first in more than 30 years, Bill Cash provides an incisive and engaging portrait of a man who influenced the politics of his generation more than virtually any other. It will be fascinating reading for anyone interested in Victorian politics and society.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2012
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About the author
Bill Cash
3 booksSir William Nigel Paul "Bill" Cash CH is a British politician who served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1984 to 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 23, 2014
It's nice to see that John Bright is still receiving some attention in the modern era, but it's a shame he hasn't been better-served by this biography. Bill Cash seems like an odd man to tell the story of a prominent 19th-century Radical, but apparently he is a distant relative of the famed reform/free trade/etc. campaigner, so I suppose he has a personal stake in the matter, trying to rescue his predecessor from the obscurity into which he has so puzzlingly fallen.
Cash observes that in the Punch cartoons of the middle Victorian era, Bright was THE other big figure frequently depicted, alongside Gladstone & Disraeli. A recent perusal through late 19th/early 20th century books on British statesmen at a local university library by myself the other day turned up the fascinating claim that Bright was one of three men who all Americans knew and revered (I unfortunately forget the other two!). How he went from such a massive, influential personality to someone whose name is scarcely heard of outside of history books and dusty statues from parliamentary lobbies to Northern towns is beyond me. Obviously he was due for a new biographical treatment, hopefully drawing on more recently unearthed sources.
Unfortunately Cash's biography has a lot of shortfalls. He isn't a particularly interesting writer. He's not a bad one, per se, but it is rather perfunctory, and the quotes are rather inelegantly inserted into the text. The book is also very politics-heavy, but not in a good way. Cash's backbench biases and anti-EU feeling manage to worm their way into places in the narrative where they don't belong. In my opinion, it's completely pointless to speculate how you think a 19th-century man would feel about a uniquely late 20th/21st century problem like the European Union; he would probably be too busy being shocked by the internet, telephones, the fact that there were two World Wars, the fact that women had the vote, etc. Cash's personal politics also intervene in the form of complaints about everything from parliamentary procedure (guillotine motions, etc.) to attempts to emphasize how 'conservative' Bright's fundamental nature was. Of course he WAS conservative in many ways--he was a devout Quaker, after all--but he remained staunchly with the Liberals his entire life, even after his opposition to Home Rule found him estranged from William Gladstone, though the two of them remained friends (unlike Benjamin Disraeli, who he fell out with and whose relentless, amoral ambition was anathema to a conviction politician like Bright).
The book is structured into chapters by political issue, which makes navigating the chronology of Bright's life somewhat difficult, as the parallel threads of his involvement in simultaneous campaigns are never really interwoven. There is also next to nothing of his personal life, outside of mentioning his marriages, and glossing over a couple severe breakdowns that occurred during times of intense political stress. While it's a welcome respite from the usual focus on sensationalized private drama in biographies, it also leaves the whole book feeling like a very incomplete picture, merely lists of dates of speaking engagements, diary entries, and parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggles. (The section on the Corn Laws in particular feels like an endless list of cities and dates.) The political and personal relationship between Bright and Richard Cobden was one of the most fruitful of the era, yet it is never covered in very much detail, other than Cash refuting claims that either man secretly harboured resentment against the other for stealing his limelight.
Long story short, while it's nice to see attention being paid to Bright again, it's not necessarily a great book to reintroduce a great man to a forgetful nation or two.
Cash observes that in the Punch cartoons of the middle Victorian era, Bright was THE other big figure frequently depicted, alongside Gladstone & Disraeli. A recent perusal through late 19th/early 20th century books on British statesmen at a local university library by myself the other day turned up the fascinating claim that Bright was one of three men who all Americans knew and revered (I unfortunately forget the other two!). How he went from such a massive, influential personality to someone whose name is scarcely heard of outside of history books and dusty statues from parliamentary lobbies to Northern towns is beyond me. Obviously he was due for a new biographical treatment, hopefully drawing on more recently unearthed sources.
Unfortunately Cash's biography has a lot of shortfalls. He isn't a particularly interesting writer. He's not a bad one, per se, but it is rather perfunctory, and the quotes are rather inelegantly inserted into the text. The book is also very politics-heavy, but not in a good way. Cash's backbench biases and anti-EU feeling manage to worm their way into places in the narrative where they don't belong. In my opinion, it's completely pointless to speculate how you think a 19th-century man would feel about a uniquely late 20th/21st century problem like the European Union; he would probably be too busy being shocked by the internet, telephones, the fact that there were two World Wars, the fact that women had the vote, etc. Cash's personal politics also intervene in the form of complaints about everything from parliamentary procedure (guillotine motions, etc.) to attempts to emphasize how 'conservative' Bright's fundamental nature was. Of course he WAS conservative in many ways--he was a devout Quaker, after all--but he remained staunchly with the Liberals his entire life, even after his opposition to Home Rule found him estranged from William Gladstone, though the two of them remained friends (unlike Benjamin Disraeli, who he fell out with and whose relentless, amoral ambition was anathema to a conviction politician like Bright).
The book is structured into chapters by political issue, which makes navigating the chronology of Bright's life somewhat difficult, as the parallel threads of his involvement in simultaneous campaigns are never really interwoven. There is also next to nothing of his personal life, outside of mentioning his marriages, and glossing over a couple severe breakdowns that occurred during times of intense political stress. While it's a welcome respite from the usual focus on sensationalized private drama in biographies, it also leaves the whole book feeling like a very incomplete picture, merely lists of dates of speaking engagements, diary entries, and parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggles. (The section on the Corn Laws in particular feels like an endless list of cities and dates.) The political and personal relationship between Bright and Richard Cobden was one of the most fruitful of the era, yet it is never covered in very much detail, other than Cash refuting claims that either man secretly harboured resentment against the other for stealing his limelight.
Long story short, while it's nice to see attention being paid to Bright again, it's not necessarily a great book to reintroduce a great man to a forgetful nation or two.
September 7, 2015
Although I espouse very different political views to Bill Cash, I am enjoying his biography of John Bright, whom I used to regard as a political hero (albeit with his flaws and an appreciation that he was a man of the mid-19th century not the 21st). I admired Bright since I became aware of him as a teenager studying Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League as a secondary school pupil 30 years or so ago, and in my late 20's managed to secure my own second hand copy of Trevelyan's 1911 Biography. I have also long believed that Bright's character and public life have been sadly neglected by most 20th century political biographers and historians. My only criticism is that Cash sometimes makes sweeping and grandiose assertions about Bright's legacy in relation to contemporary and post WWII political debates that require one to suspend one's knowledge of the history of the intervening 122 years since Bright's death and the bicentenary of his birth in 2011. All that said, I still think Trevelyan's biography despite it's hagiographical treatment of John Bright was a better written work.
My admiration of Bright has cooled in recent years because I believe he was wrong about Trades Unions and workers rights more generally. I have also become less enamoured with Free Trade unless it is also Fair Trade. All that said, Bright was a man of his time and social circumstance and an important figure in the movement towards universal adult male suffrage in the United Kingdom (which wasn't finally achieved until 1918 along with the first extension of the franchise to women over 30 who were householders). Bright was against female suffrage (another area where I disagree with him, but again a man of his time), although universal suffrage for both men and women was finally realised in 1928.
My admiration of Bright has cooled in recent years because I believe he was wrong about Trades Unions and workers rights more generally. I have also become less enamoured with Free Trade unless it is also Fair Trade. All that said, Bright was a man of his time and social circumstance and an important figure in the movement towards universal adult male suffrage in the United Kingdom (which wasn't finally achieved until 1918 along with the first extension of the franchise to women over 30 who were householders). Bright was against female suffrage (another area where I disagree with him, but again a man of his time), although universal suffrage for both men and women was finally realised in 1928.
December 30, 2012
A politician not well known in the US, but very interesting man. Author is ok.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews