1848 The British State and the Chartist Movement [Paperback]

A study of the British state's confrontation with Chartism and Irish nationalism in 1848.A detailed study of the British state's confrontation and defeat of local radical movements of Chartism and Irish nationalism in 1848, a important year of revolution in France.A detailed study of the British state's confrontation and defeat of local radical movements of Chartism and Irish nationalism in 1848, a important year of revolution in France.This is a detailed study of the workings of the various parts of the British state in their confrontation with the radical movements of Chartism and Irish nationalism. The year 1848 was notable, first, for the immense influence of the French revolution of February upon the whole of Britain and, second, for the decisive defeats suffered by the radical movements. Professor Saville's analysis is based upon government and municipal archives, newspapers and contemporary writings, and proceeds chronologically from January to late summer, when mass arrests ended the insurgent movements on both sides of the Irish Channel. A further chapter looks at length at the workings of the legal system, and the volume concludes with a general commentary on the political consequences of the decline of Chartism which followed the defeats of 1848.Preface; Abbreviations; 1. Prolegomena; 2. January-February; 3. March; 4. April; 5. Summer; 6. Days of judgement; 7. A commentary by way of conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index. Most originally, the book offers a meticulously drawn picture of the authority of the British state during this crucial year...this excellent study confirms Saville's distinction as a clear-sighted and ever provocative historian. James Epstein, Modern Europe John Saville has left us continually in his debt...Now, given this distinguished, lucid, rigorous, and thoroughly learned rendering of...England in 1848, our indebtedness measurably grows. Steward Weaver, Labor History