The British Volunteer Movement 1794-1814 [Hardcover]

This is the first major book concentrating on the volunteer force to be published for nearly a century. The volunteers were one of the largest mass movements of the eighteenth century, involving at their height about a quarter of the adult male population. Members included men as varied as William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Sir John Soane, William Pitt, and Henry Addington. Austin Gee considers how the volunteers were organized, who joined them and why, and their military and social activities.

Preface
1. 'So Gallant and Patriotic a Measure': The Gensis of the Volunteer Movement
2. The Development of Volunteering
3. 'The Shop-Keeping Army': The Membership of Volunteer Corps
Table: Occupation Structure
4. A Connection of Loyalty
5. 'To Shield Me from all Harm': The Motivation for Volunteering
6. The Public Face of Volunteering
7. 'An Armed Democracy': The Political Threat of the Volunteer Movement
8. 'The Friends of Peace and Order': Invasion, Riots, and Internal Policing
Bibliographical Note
Bibliography

This valuable book is of importance for our understanding of social dynamics as well as political practice and the nuances of ideological understanding and commitment in a particularly vexed period....It is well-grounded in the literature, draws on an impressive range of archival sources, and is well argued. --Albion

This very detailed and scholarly monograph is a welcome addition to the comparatively recent work on the volunteer phenomenon by historians such as John Cookson and Ian Beckett. --American Historical Review