Paul Pickering, Feargus O'Connor (2008). The publication of this book fills an important gap in the historiography of Chartism. Following the appearance of Malcolm Chase's magisterial narrative history of Chartism last year, we now have a biography of the movement's pre-eminent leader. Lovett, Harney, Jones all have their life-stories told in full - but Feargus has only Read & Glasgow's slim 1961 volume. Pickering has not had, as Lovett's biographer had, an autobiography to guide him - even if he had he lived into the 1870s or 1880s, it is hard to imagine Feargus finding the time to write his own life-story.
But Pickering has had the Northern Star , which meticulously documented Feargus' every move & every speech. This is a book to stand alongside the best of Chartist biographies - Schoyen on Harney & Taylor on Jones. It is a compelling story told even-handedly but with sympathy for Feargus at its heart. This study follows other important books & articles by Pickering. He must now surely be regarded as the leading historian of Chartism in the world. It is, however, a shame that Merlin could not have packaged the book more attractively: a figure as flamboyant as Feargus deserved better than this dull cover.
Stephen Roberts' reviews of Malcolm Chase, Chartism. A New History (2007); Keith Flett, Chartism after 1848 (2006); W. Hamish Fraser, Dr John Taylor, Chartist (2006) ;& Ariane Schnepf, Our Original Rights as a People (2006) will appear in Labour History Review during the course of 2008. LHR is the journal of the Society for the Study of Labour History & is published three times a year by Maney Publishing, Leeds.'
Christine Rider ed. Encylopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution (2 vols., 2007) includes useful essays on Chartism & the London Working Men's Association by Christopher Frank of the University of Manitoba. A review of these volumes by Stephen Roberts will appear shortly on H-Net'.
W. Hamish Fraser Dr John Taylor, Chartist, Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 2006, 112, £4
It is excellent news that local history societies are able to produce short, inexpensively priced books such as this. Hamish Fraser concedes that the material for a study of the theatrical but sincere John Taylor is meagre; he relies principally for information on newspapers such as the Northern Star and True Scotsman. Consequently, his book offers no new revelations about Taylor's story. Like Ernest Jones, Taylor probably invented or romanticized parts of his earlier life. What better credentials for a Chartist speaker than to claim he spent his twenty-first birthday in a French prison? Or invested his legacy in fitting out a ship to help the Greeks in their war against the Turks? Fraser is sceptical about these claims. His evaluation of Taylor is shrewd. He writes well about Taylor's emergence as Byronic revolutionary. And he is sympathetic. He explains convincingly in his final paragraphs why Taylor deserves his statue in Wallace town cemetery. Fraser has set down all we can possibly recover about Taylor's story and gets close to understanding him. Well done to him - and to AANHS for bringing out this useful book at such a good price.
Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad & Dangerous People? England 1783 - 1846 (2006)
Ten pages of this six hundred page account of sixty years of English history (one of the volumes in the New Oxford History of England) are devoted to Chartism. Hilton's discussion of the movement is mostly accurate and comes to some firm conclusions. He plumps for the views that O'Connor was a talented popular leader (though, curiously, finds space for a long quotation from a long-dead Fabian); that much myth-making has taken place around the events of 1848; and that Chartism was a political movement and, far from being counter-cultural, accepted basic social norms. Hilton inaccurately tells us that there was a wave of strikes in 1839 and fails to describe the Newport Rising. He also puts a little too much emphasis on recruits to the Chartist cause being "hard pressed", "failed" or "bored" - some local leaders, like George Binns or Peter Murray McDouall, were optimistic and sacrificed likely future success to be part of the movement. However, this account of Chartism can be recommended - it is interesting, thoughtful and, unlike Norman Gash's assessment in Aristocracy and People (1979), largely written in sympathy with the Chartists.
Asa Briggs, Chartism (1999); Richard Brown, Chartism (1998); Harry Browne, Chartism (1999); John Charlton, The Chartists (1997); Eric Evans, Chartism (2000); Edward Royle, Chartism (1996); John K. Walton, Chartism (1999).
Perhaps the most surprising publishing development in Chartist studies during the last decade has been the appearance of a multitude of short histories of the movement. For many years Edward Royle's book held the fort. Readable, reliable, and judicious, it is in fact still the best concise study of Chartism. For Edexcel A2 students and undergraduates starting work on Chartism, it is essential reading. Based on an impressive reading of monographs and articles, Richard Brown's book is sound and accurate. It includes some documentary exercises - though some of the extracts chosen are rather dull. Harry Browne's book is also detailed and dependable, drawing on a range of specialist texts. John Charlton offers a defiantly Marxist account. In his account of class struggle, he devotes twenty pages to the strikes of 1842 - which Asa Briggs deals with in two sentences. The greater part of Briggs' elegantly written book is devoted to the early years of Chartism. He sees the movement much as he saw it when editing Chartist Studies (1959). Eric Evans is sceptical about recent scholarly interpretations, particularly with regard to O'Connor. Some of the illustrations in the book are not accurately identified e.g. Thomas Cooper. Finally, John K. Walton's book can be commended - it provides useful and uncomplicated summaries of scholarly debates.
Yorkshire Chartist Choir, Chartist Songs (2006)
I have often heard Roy and Pat Palmer sing radical songs from the past, and they made me a private recording of two Chartist songs, including George Binns' poignant 'Chartist Mother's Song', a few years ago. I also have an excellent CD by Chumbawamba which features a 'Chartist Anthem'. Now, with the acquisition of this CD, recorded by the 70-strong Yorkshire Chartist Choir, I feel even closer to the Chartists. The standard of singing is very good. The CD includes six songs, three of them written by Ernest Jones, though, surprisingly, not the most popular Chartist song of all, Thomas Cooper's 'Lion of Freedom'. Several of these songs have not been sung since the times they were written for; with eyes closed, it is very easy to imagine these stirring anthems been sung by gatherings of nineteenth century working people.