Whigs and Cities Popular Politics in the Age of Walpole and Pitt [Hardcover]

This is the first major study of urban politics in the early Hanoverian era. Rogers challenges the view that the political nation was of minimal significance, and highlights the critical contribution of larger towns to the agitations that beset Walpole and swept Pitt to power. He shows, through a study of Bristol, Norwich, and London, the relative strength of opposition sentiment, the persistence of local antagonisms, and the interplay of economic interest and political clientage. Offering a challenging reinterpretation of the role of the crowd in urban politics,Whigs and Citiessheds new light on the dynamics of urban political culture in the 18th century.

As well-grounded in archival research as he is in the relevant secondary sources, Rogers marshals a formidable amount of evidence...Rogers has re-mapped the world of urban political culture in eighteenth-century Britain, and from now on, to survey the territory scholars must begin with him as their guide. --Albion

Rogers has substantially contributed to our understanding of the complexities and contradictions of the political landscape in the early Hanoverian period. --American Historical Review

Essential to graduate students in 18th-century British political, social, and urban history. --CHOICE