Professor Peter Gurney will deliver the Society for the Study of Labour History’s annual John Halstead Memorial Lecture at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, on Saturday 14 June 2025. All welcome. Booking essential as places are strictly limited. Reserve your place. Continue reading Lecture: The Chartist Revolution – book now
In the eighth of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Keith Flett encounters the Black London Chartist leader William Cuffay. William Cuffay (1788-1870) was born in Medway to a local woman and a descendant of slaves who had come to the area as a sailor. He worked as a tailor in London and became active in the Chartist movement to the extent … Continue reading Class Encounters: William Cuffay, Chartist
In the sixth of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Vic Clarke encounters the Chartist leader, MP and newspaper proprietor Feargus O’Connor. Any collective effort is bound to include a clash of personalities, and self-proclaimed ‘people’s friend’ Feargus O’Connor certainly came to clashes in the Chartist movement. A surprisingly understudied figure, O’Connor’s charismatic and bombastic editorials, or ‘letters’ to his readers in … Continue reading Class Encounters: Feargus O’Connor, Chartist leader
Author: Kevin MorganThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. Though Édouard Dolléans (1877–1954) was described by Malcolm Chase as Chartism’s first modern historian, his writings on the subject have never been translated into English and are largely unfamiliar to current historians of the movement. This paper discusses the two editions of Dolléans’s history of Chartism, published in 1912–13 … Continue reading Édouard Dolléans: First Modern Historian of Chartism?
One hundred and eighty years after was published in Leeds for the final time, the Chartist Northern Star newspaper now has a blue plaque in the heart of the city marking its importance as a voice of working-class radicalism. Unveiled by Shirley Chase, whose late husband, the Chartist historian Professor Malcolm Chase, long sought to have the paper commemorated in the city where it was … Continue reading Northern Star shines in Leeds once more
The OAB (Centre de Recherches Anglophones, Paris Nanterre) and CREW (Sorbonne Nouvelle) are jointly organizing a study day titled Protest movements, political protests and social struggles in Great Britain (1811-1914) on 31 January 2025. The day will be held on the Paris Nanterre University site, Max Weber Building. Continue reading Study day: Protest movements, political dissent and social struggles in Britain, 1811-1914
Chartism Day 2024 took place at the University of Reading. One hundred years on from the birth of the great Chartist historian Dorothy Thompson, the event sought to honour her intellectual legacy with a wide-ranging selection of papers that highlighted the field’s continuing vigour. Dorothy Thompson was ‘formidable’, and would not have minded in the least being described as such, Dr Joan Allen told delegates … Continue reading Chartism Day 2024 report: centennial event in honour of Dorothy Thompson’s intellectual legacy
The Northern Star was the paper that made Chartism. In addition to providing news of the movement’s activities locally and nationally, and a forum for ideas and debate, it created a great national political community, and both organised and mobilised its readers behind the Charter and other radical causes. From its launch at the tail end of 1837 until its relocation to London in 1844, … Continue reading A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star
Chartism Day 2024 takes place on 7 September 2024. Online registration is now open. Continue reading Register now for Chartism Day 2024
Author: Anthony DalyThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (2). Read more. This article examines William Sharman Crawford’s participation in mid-nineteenth-century popular radicalism in England. Despite his unusual background as a wealthy Irish landlord and his limitations as a politician, Sharman Crawford emerged as an important figure in Chartism, especially during the early 1840s when he served as MP for Rochdale. … Continue reading ‘The Most Consistent of Them All’: William Sharman Crawford and the Politics of Suffrage
