The Spirit of the Union:
Popular Politics in Scotland
Gordon Pentland
The Enlightenment World
978 1 85196 153 5: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 85196 062 0
The ‘Radical War’ of 1820 holds a prominent place in Scottish culture but an uneasy one in Scottish historiography. In recent times it has provided slogans for SNP activists and inspiration for trade unionists, whilst outside the political sphere, it has inspired plays, poetry, novels and paintings. Given this pervasive presence in politics and culture, a re-examination of the event and its legacy is overdue.
Pentland’s study has three key aims: to place the uprising in a wider context by exploring the modes of extra-parliamentary politics between 1815 and 1820 as well as the situation outside Scotland; to provide the first full and referenced account of the rising itself; and to examine the legacies of both the politics of 1815–20 and the Radical War. Pentland argues that a thorough evaluation of this crucial yet little understood – and much mythologized – period in Scottish history will make a significant contribution to our understanding of popular politics in early nineteenth-century Britain.
Sample pages
Readership
History of Scotland, Nineteenth-Century Studies and Political History
Contents
Introduction
1 The Forging of Post-War Politics
2 Loyalism and Whiggism in Scotland
3 Scotland and the Mass Platform
4 The 'General Rising' of 1820
Conclusion
Epilogue: The Legacies of 1820
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