Crowds, Culture, and Politics in Georgian Britain

Crowds have long been a telling feature of the historical landscape. Here, Rogers examines the changing role and character of crowds in Georgian politics through an investigation of some of the major crowd interventions in the years 1714 to 1821. He shows how the topsy-turvy interventions of the Jacobite era gave way to the more disciplined parades of Hanoverian England, a transition shaped by the effects of war, revolution, and the expansion of the state and the market. These changes unsettled the existing relationship between crowds and authority, raising issues of citizenship, class, and gender that fostered the emergence of a progressive mass platform. On this platform, radical men (and, more ambiguously, women) staked out new demands for political power and recognition. This is an original, fascinating study that shows us how and why Hanoverian crowds were more than dissonant voices on the margins--they were an integral part of 18th-century politics.