The Long Eighteenth Century

by Frank O'Gorman

  On the links between domestic and colonial radicalism see S. Conway, The British Isles and the War for American Independence (2000); C. Bonwick, English Radicals and the American Revolution (1977); R. E. Toohey, Liberty and Empire: British Radical Solutions to the American Problem (1978).

  On the later parts of this period, see E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963); J. Bohstedt, The Politics of Provision: Food Riots, Moral Economy and Market Transition in England, c. 1550-c. 1850 (2010); A. Randall, Riotous Assemblies: Popular Protest in Hanoverian England (2010); I. R. Christie, ‘The Yorkshire Association’, Historical Journal, 3 (1960) and in I. R. Christie, ed., Myth and Reality in Late Eighteenth Century British Politics (1970); J. Norris, Shelburne and Reform (1963); E. C. Black, The Association (1963); J. Osborne, John Cartwright (1972); T. M. Parsinnen, ‘Association, Convention and Anti-Parliament in British Radical Politics, 1771–1848’, English Historical Review, 88 (1973); P. Woodland and B. Heath, ‘The Opposition to the 1763 Cider Excises’, Parliamentary History, 4 (1985); C. Hay, James Burgh: Spokesman for Reform in Hanoverian England (1982); C. Haydon, Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth Century England, c.1714–80: A Political and Social Study (1993).

  CHAPTER 9. THE CRISIS OF THE HANOVERIAN REGIME, 1789–1820

  Several aspects of this chapter are dealt with in Prest, Monod and other authorities cited earlier. They are now joined by B. Hilton, A Mad, Bad and Dangerous People: 1783-1846 (2008).

  The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1789–1820

  Useful material of an introductory character may be found in T. Blanning, The Origins of the Revolutionary Wars (1986); J. Black, British Foreign Policy in an Age of Revolutions, 1783-93 (1994); D. McKay and H. Scott, The Rise of the Great Powers, 1648-1815 (1983); J. R. Jones, Britain and the World, 1689-1815 (1980). D. B. Horn, Great Britain and Europe in the Eighteenth Century (1967); E. Evans, The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain, 1783–1870 (1983); and I. R. Christie, Wars and Revolutions: Britain 1789–1815 (1982).

  More specialized studies include M. Philp, ed., Resisting Napoleon: the British Response to the Threat of Invasion, 1797-1815 (2006). J. Erhman, The Younger Pitt: The Reluctant Transition (1983) is the standard work on William Pitt now but Wiliam Hague’s biography, William Pitt the Younger (2004), though partial, is not without value. J. Mori’s William Pitt and the French Revolution, 1785-95 (1997) successfully contextualizes the problems facing Pitt.

  On the government’s conduct of the war, see the papers by M. Duffy, ‘British Diplomacy and the French Wars, 1789–1815’ and P. Mackesy, ‘Strategic Problems of the British War Effort’, in H. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the French Revolution, 1789–1815 (1989). On the British army and navy see the essays by S. Carpenter, ‘The British Army’ and R. Harding, ‘The Royal Navy’, in H. Dickinson’s Companion (2002). On the later stages of the war effort see P. Mackesy, The War in the Mediterranean, 1803–10 (1957); R. Glover, Peninsular Preparations: The Reform of the British Army, 1795–1809 (1963); J. Weller, Wellington in the Peninsula, 1808–14 (1962); P. Jupp, Lord Grenville 1759–1834 (1985); P. Mackesy, Statesmen at War: The Strategy of Overthrow, 1798–9 (1974); R. Muir, Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807-15 (1996); G. Daly, The British Soldier in the Peninsular War: Encounters with Spain and Portugal (2013); G. Rogers, British Liberators in the Age of Napoleon: Volunteering under the Spanish Flag in the Peninsular War (2013); A. Bamford, Suffering and the Sword: The British Regiments and Campaigns, 1808-15 (2013); L. Brockliss, J. Cardwell and M. Man, eds, Nelson’s Surgeon: William Beatty, Naval Medicine and the Battle of Trafalgar (2005); C. White, ed., Nelson: the New Letters (2005).

  The war of 1812 is dealt with in W. Turner, British Generals and the War of 1812 (1999).

  For artistic versions of the military campaigns see G. Quilley, Empire to Nation: Art, History and the Visualization of Maritime Briiain, 1768-1820 (2011); G. Bonehill and G. Quilley, eds, Conflicting Visions: War and Visual Culture in Britain and France c.1750-1830 (2003).

  Radicalism and Patriotism, 1789–1820

  From the previous section, the works by Hilton (2008), Erhman (1969), Evans (1983) and Christie (1982) are of value here. Other volumes mentioned in earlier sections include those by Cannon, Black, Cone, Wright and Royle and Walvin. A good guide to these discussions will be found in H. Dickinson, The Politics of the People in Eighteenth Century Britain (1995). The classic work remains E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963). His interpretation may be contrasted with that of A. Goodwin, The Friends of Liberty: The English Democratic Movement in the Age of the French Revolution (1979). A more concise account, plainly in the Thompson mould, is G. Williams, Artisans and Sans-Culottes (1968). More balanced is the brief account in H. Dickinson’s introduction to British Radicalism and the French Revolution, 1789–1815, ed. H. Dickinson (1989).

  For further titles on the reform movement, see, inter alia, M. Philp, The French Revolution and British Popular Politics (1991); J. Barrell, The Spirit of Despotism: Invasions of Privacy in the 1790s (2006); P. Spence, The Birth of Romantic Radicalism: War, Popular Politics and English Radical Reformism, 1800-1815 (1996); D. J. Jones, Before Rebecca: Popular Protests in Wales, 1793–1935 (1973); J. Stevenson, Popular Disturbances in England, 1700–1870 (1979) and the same author’s ‘Popular Radicalism and Popular Protest, 1789-1815’, in H. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the French Revolution (1989); K. J. Logue, Popular Disturbances in Scotland, 1780–1815 (1979); B. Harris, ed., Scotland and the French Revolution (2005); J. A. Hone, For the Cause of Truth: Radicalism in London, 1796–1821 (1982); I. McCalman, Radical Underworld: Prophets, Revolutionaries and Pornographers in London, 1795–1840 (1988); J. Belchem, Henry Hunt and English Working Class Radicalism (1985); M. Elliott, ‘The Despard Conspiracy Reconsidered’, Past and Present, 75 (1977); S. Andrews, Unitarian Radicalism: Political Rhetoric, 1770-1814 (2003). R. Poole has edited a complete edition of the 1989 volume of the Manchester Regional History Review (2004), a volume that cannot be ignored by students of the period.

  For the neglected sections of liberal opinion, see J. Cookson’s The Friends of Peace: Anti-War Liberalism in England, 1793-1815 (1982). On the greatest of the radicals, see G. Claeys, Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought (1989). J. Keane, Tom Paine (1995). See also C. Bewley, Gentleman Radical: Horne Tooke (1998). On the state trials, see J. Barrell and J. Mee, eds, Trials for Treason and Sedition, 1792-94 (2009); K. Johnston, Unusual Suspects: Pitt’s Reign of Alarm and the Lost Generation of the 1790s (2013).

  On the political activities of loyalists, see E. C. Black, The Association (1963); R. B. Dozier, For King, Constitution and Country: The English Loyalists and the French Revolution (1983). Two essays in the same volume are relevant here: F. O’Gorman, ‘Pitt and the Tory Reaction to the French Revolution’ and H. Dickinson, ‘Popular Conservatism and Militant Loyalism, 1789–1815’, in H. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the French Revolution, 1789–1815 (1989); A. Booth, ‘Popular Loyalism and Public Violence in the North West of England, 1799–1800’, Social History, 8 (1983); K. Navickas, Loyalism and Radicalism in Lancashire, 1798-1815 (2009); J. Sack, From Jacobite to Conservative (1993); A. Blackstock, An Ascendancy Army: the Irish Yeomanry, 1796-1834 (1998); A. Blackstock, Loyalism in Ireland, 1789-1829 (2007). J. Cookson’s The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815 (1997) is controversial on the links between loyalism and the army. On discussions concerning the political elite, see A. Goodrych, Debating English Aristocracy in the 1790s: Pamphlets, Polemics and Political Ideas (2005).

  The Politics of Wartime and After, 1789–1820

  Volumes by the following authors mentioned in earlier sections of this bibliography will be useful here: Hilton (2008), Ehrman (1969), Mitchell (1971), Evans (1983), Christie (1982). Useful general introductions will be found in F. O’Gorman, The Emergence of the British Two-Party System (1982), J. W. Derry, Politics in the Age of Fox, Pitt and Liverpool (1990) and A. Harvey, Britain in the Early Nineteenth Century (1978). More spec
ialized studies include J. E. Cookson, Lord Liverpool’s Administration, 1815–22 (1975); A. D. Harvey, Britain in the Early Nineteenth Century (1978); B. Hilton, Cash, Corn and Commerce (1977). The most useful biographies include C. J. Bartlett, Castlereagh (1966); J. W. Derry, Castlereagh (1976); P. Ziegler, Addington (1965); W. Hinde, George Canning (1973); N. Gash, Lord Liverpool (1984); R. Melikan, John Scott, Lord Eldon, 1751-1838: The Duty of Loyalty (1999); S. Lee, George Canning and Liberal Toryism, 1801-27 (2008).

  On the Whig opposition, see F. O’Gorman, The Whig Party and the French Revolution (1967); E. A. Smith, Whig Principles and Party Politics (1975); L. Mitchell, Holland House (1980); L. Mitchelll, Charles James Fox (1992); A. Mitchell, The Whigs in Opposition, 1815–30 (1967); M. Roberts, The Whig Party, 1807–12 (1939); C. New, Life of Henry Brougham (1961).

  The Avoidance of Revolution, 1789–1820

  The most recent statement on this much-discussed topic is M. Chase, Disorder and Stability in the United Kingdom: Integration, Protest and Theatre (2013). A most useful summary of the issues may be found in an earlier volume, E. Royle, Revolutionary Britannia? Reflections on the Threat of Revolution in Britain, 1789-1848 (2000). On the nature of British society, see C. Emsley, British Society and the French Wars (1979). The most dramatic historiographical conflict on this topic is that between I. R. Christie, whose Stress and Stability in Late Eighteenth Century England (1984) provides an appreciative and optimistic version of the fortunes of the regime, and the works of Roger Wells, Insurrection: The British Experience, 1795–1803 (1983) and Wretched Faces; Famine in War-time England, 1793–1801 (1988), which set out an interpretation more sympathetic to the likelihood of revolution. More balanced discussions may be found in E. Macleod, ‘The Crisis of the French Revolution’, in H. Dickinson, ed., A Companion to Eighteenth Century Britain (2002). See also H. Perkin, The Origins of Modern English Society, 1780–1880 (1969); R. Dozier, ‘Democratic Revolution in England: a Possibility?’, Albion, 4(4) (1972); C. Emsley, ‘The London Insurrection of December, 1792: Fact or Fantasy?’, Journal of British Studies, 17(2) (1978). More general discussions include M. I. Thomas, Threats of Revolution in Britain, 1789–1848 (1977). On the sub-nations of Britain, in addition to titles by Jones and Logue above, see M. Elliott, Partners in Revolution: the United Irishmen and France (1982); E. McFarland, Ireland and Scotland in the Age of Revolution (1994); A. J. Ward, The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland, 1782-1992 (1994).

  Useful background to these discussions, and, indeed, other British preoccupations will be found in G. Rudé, Revolutionary Europe, 1783–1815 (1964); R. R. Palmer, The Age of the Democratic Revolution, 2 vols (1959); D. Jarrett, The Begetters of Revolution: England’s Involvement with France, 1759–89 (1973).

  CHAPTER 10. STATE AND CHURCH IN LATER HANOVERIAN BRITAIN, 1757–1832

  Monarchy and the Party System, 1780–1832

  Many of the general books listed for Chapter 9, under ‘The Politics of Wartime and After’, will be of use in this section. Peter Jupp’s chapter on the monarchy in his British Politics on the Eve of Reform: the Duke of Wellington’s Administration, 1820-30 (1998) is of great value. See also H. Hanham, The Nineteenth Century Constitution (1969); J. Derry, Politics in the Age of Fox, Pitt and Liverpool (1990); W. R. Brock, Lord Liverpool and Liberal Toryism, 2nd edn (1967). J. Loughlin, The British Monarchy and Ireland, 1800 to the Present (2007) interestingly focuses on the contested nature of the royal presence but also brings out how ‘welfarist’ strategies helped to commend the monarch to the Irish people. On the monarchy, see S. Poole, The Politics of Regicide (2000); M. Morris, The British Monarchy and the French Revolution (1998); E. Smith, George IV (1999).

  On the politicians, see J. J. Sack, The Grenvillites, 1801–29: Party Politics and Factionalism in the Age of Pitt and Liverpool (1979); R. W. Davis, Political Change and Continuity: A Buckinghamshire Study (1972); M. McCahill, The House of Lords in the Age of George III, 1760-1811 (2009); D. Large, ‘The Decline of the Party of the Crown and the Rise of Parties in the House of Lords, 1783–1837’, English Historical Review, 77 (1963). F. O’Gorman, ‘Pitt and the Tory Reaction to the French Revolution, 1789–1815’ and J. Derry, ‘The Opposition Whigs and the French Revolution’ may both be found in H. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the French Revolution, 1789–1815 (1989). Other studies include E. A. Smith, Lord Grey, 1764–1845 (1990); B. Coleman, Conservativism and the Conservative Party in Nineteenth Century Britain (1988); R. Stewart, British Politics, 1830–32 (1989).

  The State and the Law

  Little has been written about the state in early-nineteenth-century Britain. The standard works are H. Parris, Constitutional Bureaucracy (1969) and H. Roseveare, The Treasury: Evolution of a British Institution (1969), and are of far more general significance than their titles suggest. See also D. M. Young, The Colonial Office in the Early Nineteenth Century (1961). Two valuable monographs are P. Harling, The Waning of Old Corruption: The Politics of Economical Reform in Britain, 1779–1846 (1996) and D. Eastwood, Governing Rural England: Traditions and Transformation in Local Government, 1780–1840 (1994).

  Crime and criminals have attracted far more attention. J. A. Sharpe, the author of Crime in Early Modern England, 1550-1750 (1999) has written a helpful overview of the subject in H. Dickingson’s Companion (2002). Other essential material will be found in J. Rule and R. Wells, Crime, Protest and Popular Politics in Southern England, 1740-1850 (1997); J. Beattie, Policing and Punishment in London,1660-1750 (2001); J. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1660–1800 (1986); J. Beattie, ‘The Pattern of Crime in England, 1660–1800’, Past and Present, 62 (1974); A. Harris, Policing the City: Crime and Authority in London, 1780-1840 (2004); A. R. Ekirch, Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718–75 (1987); C. Emsley, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900 (1987); V. Gatrell, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People, 1770–1868 (1994); D. Hay et al., Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth Century England (1977); D. Hay, ‘War, Dearth and Theft in the Eighteenth Century’, Past and Present, 95 (1982); P. King, Crime, Justice and Discretion, 1740-1820 (2000); M. Ignatieff, A Just Measure of Pain: The Penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution, 1750–1850 (1978); P. King, ‘Decision Makers and Decision Making in the English Criminal Law, 1750–1800’, Historical Journal, 27 (1984); P. Linebaugh, The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (1992); J. Styles and J. Brewer, An Ungovernable People: The English and Their Law in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1980); E. P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act (1975); M. de Lacy, Prison Reform in Lancashire, 1700–1850: A Study in Local Administration (1986); D. Andrew and R. McGowen, Forgery and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century London (2001); H. Shore, Artful Dodgers: Youth and Crime in Early Nineteenth Century London (1999).

  The Retreat from the Confessional State, 1756–1820

  Anglicans and Evangelicals

  Many of the works listed for Chapter 6 under ‘A Confessional Regime?’ will continue to assist students in this period. See also, on the established church, R. Ingram, Reform and Modernity in the Eighteenth Century (2009); J. Gregory, Faith in the Age of Reason (2011); W. Gibson, Religion and Society in England and Wales, 1689-1800 (1998) and the same author’s The Church of England 1688-1832 (2001); E. R. Norman, Church and Society in England, 1770–1970 (1976); A. Smith, The Established Church and Popular Religion, 1750–1850 (1971); M. Smith, Religion in Industrial Society: Oldham and Saddleworth, 1740–1865 (1994).

  The Evangelicals continue to attract historians. Recent works include M. Noll, D. Bebbington and G. Rawlyk, eds, Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles and Beyond, 1700–1900 (1994); B. Hilton, The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought, 1785–1865 (1988); D. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (1989); M. J. Crawford, ‘Origins of the
Eighteenth Century Evangelical Revival: England and New England Compared’, Journal of British Studies, 26(4) (October 1987); D. B. Hindmarsh, John Newton and the Evangelical Tradition between the Conversions of Wesley and Wilberforce (1996).

  Abolitionism has attracted much attention recently. See J. R. Oldfield’s overview in H. Dickinson’s Companion (2002) before turning to his Transatlantic Abolitionism in the Age of Revolution: an International History of Anti-Slavery. c.1787-c. 1820 (2013); S. Ahern, ed., Affect and Abolition in the Anglo-Atlantic, 1770-1832 (2013); M. Dresser and A. Hann, eds, Slavery and the British Country House (2013); S. Swaminathan, Debating the Slave Trade: the Rhetoric of British National Identity,1759-1815 (2009); K. Kriz, Slavery, Sugar and the Culture of Refinement: Picturing the British West Indies (2008); D. Turley, The Culture of English Anti-Slavery, 1780–1860 (1991); S. Drescher, Capitalism and Anti-slavery: British Mobilization in Comparative Perspective (1987); D. Eltis, Economic Growth and the Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade (1987); J. R. Oldfield, Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery: The Mobilisation of Public Opinion against the Slave Trade, 1787–1807 (1995); J. Jennings, The Business of Abolishing the Slave Trade, 1783-1807 (1997). See also N. Myers, Reconstructing the Black Past: Blacks in Britain, 1780-1830 (1996); V. Carretta, ed., Unchained Voices: an Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century (1996).