The Long Eighteenth Century

by Frank O'Gorman

  The political aspects of aristocratic oligarchy are dealt with magisterially in J. A. Cannon, Aristocratic Century: The Peerage in Eighteenth Century England (1984); but see also P. Langford, Public Life and the Propertied Englishman, 1689–1789 (1991); J. A. Cannon, ‘The Isthmus Repaired: The Resurgence of the English Aristocracy, 1660–1716’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 68 (1982).

  The Middling Orders: Enterprise and Docility

  Major, recent studies on the middling orders include H. R. French, The Middle Sort of People in Provincial England, 1600-1750 (2007); N. Rogers, Whigs and Cities: Popular Politics in the Age of Walpole and Pitt (1989); J. Barry and C. Brooks, eds, The Middling Sort of People: Culture, Society and Politics in England, 1550-1800 (1994); M. Hunt, The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender and the Family in England, 1680-1780 (1996). Much has been published on the growth of consumerism in recent years since N. McKendrick, J. Brewer and J. H. Plumb, The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth Century England (1982). Among the best titles are J. Brewer and A. Bermingham, eds, The Consumption of Culture (1985); J. Brewer and S. Staves, eds, Early Modern Conceptions of Property (1995); C. Shamman, The Pre-Industrial Consumer in England and America (1993); J. Brewer and R. Porter, eds, Consumption and the World of Goods (1994); L. Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain, 1660–1760 (1988); H. C. Mui and L. H. Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth Century England (1989); B. Lemire, Fashion’s Favourite: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain, 1660–1800 (1991).

  The commercial background is provided in W. E. Minchinton, ed., The Growth of Overseas Trade in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1969); R. Davis, ‘English Foreign Trade, 1700–1774’, Economic History Review, 15 (1962) and R. G. Wilson, Gentlemen Merchants: The Merchant Community in Leeds, 1700–1830 (1971).

  On the professions, see G. Holmes, Augustan England: Professions, State and Society, 1680–1730 (1982); W. Prest, ed., The Professions in Early Modern England (1989). On London, see P. Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660–1730 (1989); G. S. de Krey, A Fractured Society: The Politics of London in the First Age of Party, 1688–1715 (1985); and H. Horwitz, ‘Party in a Civic Context: London from the Exclusion Crisis to the Fall of Walpole’, in C. Jones, ed., Britain in the First Age of Party (1987).

  Urban Society: Culture and Elites

  Students are advised to base their studies of urban history on P. Corfield, The Impact of English Towns, 1700–1800 (1982) and, R. Sweet, The English Town, 1680-1840 (1999). More specialized studies include P. N. Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town, 1660–1700 (1989); P. Borsay and L. Proudfoot, Provincial Towns in Early Modern England and Ireland: Convergence and Divergence (2002); P. Borsay, The Eighteenth Century Town: a Reader in English Urban History, 1688-1820 (1990); P. Corfield et al., Rise of the New Urban Society (1975); C. W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: A Study of Eighteenth Century England (1984); M. Girouard, The English Town: A History of Urban Life (1990). Two further works retain much of interest. See P. Clark and P. Slack, eds, Crisis and Order in English Towns: Essays in Urban History (1972); P. Clark, ed., The Transformation of English Provincial Towns, 1600–1800 (1984).

  On themes relevant to urban history in this period, see R. Sweet, The Writing of Urban Histories in the Eighteenth Century (1997); B. Purdue, Merchants and Gentry in North Eastern England, 1650-1830 (1999); K. Wilson, The Sense of the People (1995); P. Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580-1800: the Origins of an Associational World (2000). J. Ayres, Building the Georgian Town (1998); studies of individual towns include J. Summerson, Georgian London (2003); J. Smith, The Borough of Maldon, 1688-1800: A Golden Age (2013).

  On discussions concerning material culture and luxury, see I. Woodward, Understanding Material Culture (2007); M. Berg and H. Clifford, eds, Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe, 1650-1850 (1999); M. Berg, Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods (2007); C. Tilley, ‘Interpreting Material Culture’, in I. Hodder, ed., The Meaning of Things: Material Cultures and Symbolic Expression (1989).

  The Common People: Assertion, Festivity and Direct Action

  A useful introduction by Bob Bushaway to this topic may be found in H. Dickinson’s Companion (2002). Principal works include T. Harris, ed., Popular Culture in England, 1500-1800 (1995) and in J. Rule’s Albion’s People (1992), chs 5 and 6. J. F. C. Harrison’s The Common People (1984) is an unjustly neglected work, especially chapters 5 and 6. See also K. Wrightson’s English Society, 1580–1680 (1982), although written principally for an earlier period, contains much of interest (esp. chs 2 and 6). See also A. McInnes ‘The Revolution and the People’ in G. Holmes, ed., Britain after the Glorious Revolution, 1689–1714 (1969). Edward Thompson’s approach to popular culture is memorably outlined in ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century’, Past and Present, 50 (1971) and applied to the period of Walpole in Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act (1975). See the same author’s collection of Customs in Common (1991). Thompson’s views received vital reinforcement from K. D. M. Snell’s Annals of the Labouring Poor: Social Change and Agrarian England, 1660–1900 (1985), D. Hay and N. Rogers, Eighteenth Century English Society (1997) and in general influenced a number of further works: L. H. Lynn, The Solidarities of Strangers: the English Poor Law and the People, 1700-1948 (1998); B. Reay, Popular Cultures in England (1998); J. M. Golby and A. W. Purdue, The Civilisation of the Crowd: Popular Culture in England, 1750-1900 (1984) and R. W. Malcolmson, Life and Labour in England, 1700–1780 (1981). These discussions are developed in and contested in J. Bohstedt, The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy and Market Transition in England, c. 1550-1850 (2010).

  A different type of approach is provided in H. Dickinson’s The Politics of the People in Eighteenth Century Britain (1995). J. Brewer, Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III (1976) has important perspectives which are relevant even earlier than 1760. Similarly the methods employed by those historians studying ritual celebrations can be more widely applied. See e.g. K. Wilson, ‘Empire, Trade and Popular Politics in Mid-Hanoverian England: The Case of “Admiral Vernon”’, Past and Present, 121 (1988). Her thesis is more fully outlined in The Sense of the People: Urban Political Culture in England, 1715–85 (1995). See also G. Jordan and N. Rogers, ‘Admirals as Heroes: Patriotisms and Liberty in Hanoverian England’, Journal of British Studies, 28(3) (1989). A new narrative approach is outlined in P. Kind et al., eds, Narratives of the Poor in Eighteenth Century Britain (2006). See also J. Frank, Common Ground in Eighteenth Century England: Satire, Fiction and the Poor (1997).

  The vexed issue of ‘popular politics’ is assessed in N. Rogers, Whigs and Cities: Popular Politics in the Age of Walpole and Pitt (1989); and ‘The Urban Opposition to Whig Oligarchy, 1720–60’, in M. Jacob and M. Jacob, eds, The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism (1984). See also Bob Bushaway’s By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England, 1700-1880 (1982).

  CHAPTER 5. THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION OF THE EARLY HANOVERIAN REGIME, 1714–1757

  Politics and Print

  Ruminations on the nature of politics in this period are none too common, but see J. C. D. Clark, The Dynamics of Change: The Crisis of the 1750s and English Party Systems (1982), pp. 1–26; J. C. D. Clark, ‘A General Theory of Party, Opposition and Government, 1688-1832’, Historical Journal, 23 (1980), pp. 295–325; R. Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (1982), ch. 3.

  On the emergence of print culture, see the introductory essay by Bob Harris in H. Dickinson’s Companion (2002). Consult The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. V, 1695-1832, eds. M. Suarez and M. Turner (2010); M. Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction and Its Readership in the Seventeenth Century England (1981) and B. Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs, 1550–1800 (19
89) for the historical origins of eighteenth century print culture.

  Studies of the press have considerably developed our understanding of many aspects of eighteenth century society. M. Harris and A. Lee, The Press in English Society (1987); H. Barker, Newspapers, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855 (2000); J. Black, The English Press in the Eighteenth Century (1987); G. Cranfield, The Development of the Provincial Newspaper, 1700-1760 (1962); C. Ferdinand, Benjamin Collins and the Provincial Newspaper Trade in the Eighteenth Century (1997); M. Harris, London Newspapers in the Age of Walpole: A Study in the Origins of the Modern English Press (1987); Bob Harris, Politics and the Rise of the Press: Britain and France, 1620-1800 (1996); R. Harris, A Patriot Press: National Politics and the London Press in the 1740s (1993); K. Gilmartin, Print Politics: The Press and Radical Opposition in Early Nineteenth Century England (1996); R. M. Wiles, Freshest Advices: Early Provincial Newspapers in England (1965); A. Aspinall, Politics and the Press, c. 1780-1850 (1949).

  The following studies of various aspects of print culture aid our understanding of Hanoverian political and cultural life. J. Feather, The Provincial Book Trade in Eighteenth Century England (1985); Development of the English Book Trade, 1700-1793 (1981); G. Justice and N. Tribe, eds, Women’s Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript Publications in England, 1550-1800 (2002); N. O’Coursain, Print and Popular Culture in Ireland, 1750-1800 (1997); J. Kelly and M. Powell, Clubs and Societies in Eighteenth Century Ireland (2010); J. Raven, Judging New Wealth: Popular Publishing and Responses to Commerce in England, 1750-1800 (1992); J. Raymond, ed., News, Newspapers and Society in Early Modern Britain (1999); I. Rogers, ed., Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth Century England (1982); A. Sullivan, ed., British Literary Magazines: The Augustan Age and the Age of Johnson, 1698-1788 (1983); W. St. Clair, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (2004).

  Crown and Parliament

  Several of the titles listed in the first part of section, three are relevant here, notably those by Holmes and Hill. In fact, there is surprisingly little scholarly historical work on the first two Georges. The best works include H. Smith, Georgian Monarchy in Politics and Culture (2006); R. Hatton, George I: Elector and King (1978); R. Hatton, ‘New Light on George I of Great Britain’, in S. B. Baxter, ed., England’s Rise to Greatness, 1660–1760 (1983); J. M. Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I (1967); J. Owen, ‘George II Reconsidered’, in A. Whiteman, J. S. Bromley and P. G. M. Dickson, eds, Statesmen, Scholars and Merchants (1973); R. Bucholz, The Augustan Court (1993). See also the works mentioned above in the Bibliography to Chapter 3.

  More general works include J. Owen, The Pattern of Politics in Eighteenth Century England (1962); E. Cruickshanks, ‘The Political Management of Sir Robert Walpole’, in J. Black, ed., Britain in the Age of Walpole (1984); J. Black, Robert Walpole and the Nature of Politics in Early Eighteenth Century Britain (1960); S. Lambert, Bills and Acts: Legislative Procedure in Eighteenth Century England (1971); P. D. G. Thomas, The House of Commons in the Eighteenth Century (1971).

  Sir Lewis Namier’s commanding perspectives may be found in L. B. Namier, ‘Monarchy and the Party System’, in Personalities and Power (1962); ‘Country Gentlemen in Parliament’, in Personalities and Powers (1955); The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, 2nd edn (1982); England in the Age of the American Revolution, 2nd edn (1961).

  The State: Central and Local

  On the links between central and local government, consult; P. Harling, The Modern British State, an Historical Introduction (2001); E. Helmuth, ‘The State’, in H. Dickinson, ed., Companion, pp. 19–29 (2002, 2006); E. N. Williams, The Eighteenth Century Constitution (1970); J. Brewer, The Sinews of Power (1989); D. Eastwood, Government and the Community in the English Provinces, 1700-1800 (2007); J. Brewer and E. Hellmuth, Rethinking Leviathan: The Eighteenth Century State in Britain and Germany (1999); L. K. Glassey, Politics and the Appointment of Justices of the Peace, 1675–1725 (1979); P. Dickson, The Financial Revolution in England: A Study in the Development of Public Credit, 1688-1756 (1967); N. Landau, The Justices of the Peace, 1679–1760 (1984); L. K. Glassey, ‘Local Government’, in C. Jones, ed., Britain in the First Age of Party (1987); P. O’Brien, Power with Profit: The State and the Economy, 1688-1815 (1991). There is a valuable study on Scotland: A. Whetstone, Scottish County Government in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (1991).

  On the electoral system, see J. Cannon, Parliamentary Reform, 1640–1832 (1973); F. O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons and Parties: The Unreformed Electorate of Hanoverian England, 1734–1832 (1989); ‘The Unreformed Electorate of Hanoverian England: The Mid-Eighteenth Century to 1832’, Social History, 2(1) (1986); ‘The Social Meaning of Elections, Campaign Rituals and Ceremonies in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Past and Present, 135 (May 1992); W. A. Speck, ‘The Electorate in the First Age of Party’, in C. Jones, ed., Britain in the First Age of Party (1987); P. Langford, ‘Property and “Virtual Representation” in Eighteenth Century England’, Historical Journal, 31 (1988); J. A. Phillips, ‘The Structure of the Unreformed Electorate’, Journal of British Studies, 19 (1979).

  Whigs and Tories

  Many of the more general titles listed in the bibliographies to Chapters 2 and 3 will be useful here, particularly those by Holmes and Szechi, Owen, Hoppitt, Foord and Plumb. General discussions of parties and the Hanoverian party system can be found in the following: R. R. Sedgwick, The House of Commons, 1715–54, 2 vols (1970); B. W. Hill, The Growth of Parliamentary Parties, 1689–1742 (1976); W. A. Speck, ‘Whigs and Tories Dim Their Glories: English Political Parties Under the First Two Georges’, in J. A. Cannon, ed., The Whig Supremacy (1981); J. C. D. Clark, The Dynamics of Change: The Crisis of the 1750s and English Party Systems (1982); J. C. D. Clark, ‘The Decline of Party, 1740–60’, English Historical Review, 93 (1978); B. Hill, The Early Parties and Politics in Britain, 1688-1832 (1996).

  On the Whigs, consult H. T. Dickinson, Walpole and the Whig Supremacy (1973); ‘Whiggism in the Eighteenth Century’, in J. A. Cannon, ed., The Whig Supremacy (1981); Liberty and Property: Political Ideology in Eighteenth Century Britain (1995); J. B. Owen, The Rise of the Pelhams (1957); N. Rogers, Whigs and Cities (1989); B. W. Hill, British Parliamentary Parties, 1742–1832 (1985); A. S. Foord, His Majesty’s Opposition, 1714–1832 (1964).

  On the Tories, see G. V. Bennett, The Tory Crisis in Church and State, 1688–1730 (1975); L. Colley, In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party, 1714–60 (1982); H. T. Dickinson, Bolingbroke (1970); E. Cruickshanks, Political Untouchables: The Tories and the ‘45 (1979); J. C. D. Clark, ‘The Politics of the Excluded: Tories, Jacobites and Whig Patriots, 1715–60’, Parliamentary History, 2 (1983); I. R. Christie, ‘The Tory Party, Jacobitism and the ‘45’, Historical Journal, 30 (4) (1987).

  The Jacobites

  The Jacobites have attracted an enormous literature in recent years, much of it sympathetic to its subject. Among the most balanced and useful titles are D. Szechi, The Jacobites: Britain and Europe, 1688-1788 (1994) and P. Monod, Jacobitism and the English People (1989). There is a useful summary of recent Jacobite studies by D. Szechi in H. Dickinson’s Companion. Studies sympathetic to the Jacobites include E. Cruickshanks and J. Black, eds, The Jacobite Challenge, (1988); E. Cruickshanks, ed., Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism, 1689–1759 (1992); F. McLynn, The Jacobites (1985).

  More specific studies include M. Pittock, The Myth of the Jacobite Clans, 2nd edn (2009); P. Monod, M. Pittock and D. Szechi, Loyalty and Identity: Jacobites at Home and Abroad (2010); J. Baynes, The Jacobite Risings of 1715 (1970); P. S. Fritz, The English Ministers and Jacobitism between the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 (1975); J. S. Gibson, Playing the Scottish Card: The Franco-Jacobite Invasion of 1708 (1988); R. C. Jarvis, Collected Papers on the Jacobite Risings, 2 vols (1972); B. Lenman, The Jacobite Risings in Britain, 1689–1746 (1980); F. McLynn, France and the Jacobite Rising of 1745 (1981); P. K. Monod, The Invention of Scotland: The
Stuart Myth and the Scottish Identity (1991); W. A. Speck, The Butcher: The Duke of Cumberland and the Suppression of the ‘45 (1981); D. Szechi, Jacobitism and Tory Politics, 1710–14 (1984); C. Duffy, The ’45 (2003). Irish Jacobitism is just beginning to interest a wider academic audience. See E. Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685-1766: a Fatal Attachment (2002). At the more popular level, the spirit of Jacobitism may be captured in E. Corp, The King over the Water (2001); E. Corp, The Jacobites at Urbino: an Exiled Court in Transition (2009). On the (much discussed) topic of Jacobite material culture see M. Pittock’s ‘Treacherous Objects: Towards a Theory of Jacobite Material Culture’, Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies, 34 (i) (2011).

  CHAPTER 6. WHAT KIND OF REGIME? (1714–1757)

  A Stable Regime?

  Many of the books listed above, notably those by Prest (1998), Hoppitt (2000) and Monod (2008) contain helpful material on this debate. The two principal older texts in the ‘stability’ debate have been J. Plumb, The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675–1725 (1967) and G. Holmes, ‘The Achievement of Stability: The Social Context of Politics from the 1680s to the Age of Walpole’, in J. A. Cannon, ed., The Whig Supremacy: Colloquies on Hanoverian England (1982). Further discussion may be found in J. Black’s introductions to two of his own volumes: Britain in the Age of Walpole (1984) and British Politics and Society from Walpole to Pitt (1990). Half of Albion, 25(2) (1993) was given over to a (rather disappointing) series of papers on the stability debate. A wider and somewhat more stimulating approach may be found in J. Brewer and E. Hellmuth, Rethinking Leviathan. W. Rubinstein adopts a nineteenth-century view of eighteenth-century stability in his Britain’s Century (1998), especially pp. 334–7.