Malcolm Chase, Chartism: A New History, ManchesterUniversity Press, 2007, pp. x + 421, h/b, £60, ISBN 978 0 7190 6086 1, p/b £18.99, ISBN 978 0 7190 6087 8; Ariane Schnepf, Our Original Rights as a People: Representations of the Chartist Encyclopaedic Network and Political, Social and Cultural Change in Early Nineteenth Century Britain, Peter Lang, 2006, pp. 324, p/b, £36, ISBN 3 03910 968 5; David Shaw and Ian Petticrew, Gerald Massey, 2007, pp. 8 + CD,

The heyday of research into Chartism was the two decades between the publication of Chartist Studies (1959) and The Chartist Experience (1982). During this golden periodlocal historians revealed the rich detail to be found in provincial newspapers, postgraduate students of the calibre of James Epstein and David Goodway worked on theses which would become important books, monographs on subjects from Bronterre O’Brien to the Land Plan appeared, and Dorothy Thompson brought out what remains an indispensable volume of documents as well as completing work on her seminal book. Of course, scholarly interest in Chartism has not disappeared. An enthusiastic band of researchers remain in touch, and two of them, Paul Pickering and Miles Taylor, have produced books which are as good as any written in earlier years. The glaring omission in all of these publications, however, and one long commented on by Chartist scholars themselves, was the absence of a book-length narrative history. J.T. Ward’s book (1973) stood alone, and this had been shot down in flames by Thompson’s student, Epstein. For all its readability and respect for grassroots Chartists, Ward’s book was seriously flawed by its hostile treatment of Feargus O’Connor. This view was very much at odds with the much more sympathetic appraisal which was emerging amongst historians. Ward recognized the magnitude and resilience of Chartism, but, in writing about the movement’s main leader, accepted the verdicts of O’Connor’s enemies. Finally, over three decades after Ward’s attempt and nearly a century since Mark Hovell’s study, a new history of the movement has emerged.

Malcolm Chase has been a student of Chartism for over twenty five years. During this time he has pursued his own research interests – the Land Plan, the Northern Star and the Chartists of Teesside – and kept abreast of the work of others. This new book therefore is a distillation of these two things. There is, in his discussions of key parts of the Chartist story and in some of the portraits he intersperses between chapters of local activists such as Abram and Elizabeth Hanson, new information, and throughout the book evidence of extensive reading of monographs, theses and articles – though,

unfortunately for those who might want to pursue some of the personalities and incidents he raises, his secondary sources are not always acknowledged in the notes.

Chase’s book should give us a clear idea about how Chartism is perceived in the twenty-first century. How we understand Feargus O’Connor is integral to how we understand Chartism. After over a century of denigration, Epstein came riding to Feargus’ rescue in 1977. Dorothy Thompson’s special subject students were instructed to read Epstein’s PhD. We were all suitably impressed. Three decades later it seems clear that Epstein produced too admiring an assessment of O’Connor. What we get from Chase is something more reflective. We have a portrait which recognizes Feargus’ shortcomings but also gives him the considerable credit he deserves. So the O’Connor who emerges from this book is thin-skinned and resentful of opposition and easily flattered and sometimes mean-spirited – the promised portrait of William Lovett from the Northern Star never appeared – but also dynamic,optimistic, steadfast and deeply loyal to working people. Feargus remains the ‘Lion of Freedom’. Chase writes sympathetically about O’Connor’s performance on 10 April 1848, telling us that stress induced an angina attack. I do not agree with Chase’s view, however, that O’Connor was a poor parliamentarian. In the House of Commons in 1847-8 he was a forceful spokesman for Ireland.

Chase recognizes that there were hundreds of busy Chartist poets. Here and there he even quotes an odd stanza. I would have liked to have seen a lengthier discussion of this interesting and important aspect of the movement. Chase wrongly suggests thatThomas Cooper was one of the most prolific poets of Chartism – he published only three hymnsin 1841-2– but does not discuss the vital part played in the Chartist struggle by the verses and songs of George Binns, William Jones and many others. I also think Chasetries too hard to explain the sequence of events in the Chartist risings of 1839-40. The rising in Bradford in January 1840 was surely a far more confused and ill-organized affair than Chase suggests.

These points should not, however, detract from the considerable merits of this book. Doubtless after much contemplation, Chase has chosen a very effective opening for his book. His readers are pitched straight into theGlasgow demonstration of May 1838 when 150,000 working men and women gathered in the rain to hear Thomas Attwood speak. Immediately, Chase gives us action and makes clear that Chartism was a British movement. I was glad to meet in this opening chapter, too, even before Feargus strides

across the pages, the Birmingham activist, John Collins. The work of these small men of Chartism has long been recognized, though Collins’ own important behind-the-scenes contribution still needs to be pieced together. Chase does indeed get as close as we can get to understanding how it felt to be a Chartist. He provides some lovely anecdotes about those children who bore Feargus’ name - though, perhaps wisely, he chooses not to enterinto the speculation that Feargus may have been more significant in some of these children’s lives than simply lending them a name!

Chase has given us therichly-detailed, reliable, lucid and considerednarrative history of Chartism that was badly needed. He has written a book that will be read for many years to come by a wide range of people. It is a book which really ought to be in every large public library. Ariane Schnepf’s book is altogether different. Originating as a University of Basel PhD, this is a book aimed squarely at scholars. Schnepf, in a highly theoretical text, attempts to re-ignite the debate begun over Chartist language twenty five years ago by Gareth Stedman Jones. Drawing on fifty contributions to the Chartist press, and also some poetry, Schnepf muses over a series of keywords (‘people’, ‘nation’, ‘tyrants’, ‘slaves’ etc) and seeks to explain how the Chartists understood their world. I found the book a tough read. It is definitely only for the very brave.

The Chartist poet, Gerald Massey, died in 1907 (Chase informs us that the last survivor of the Chartist struggle was Henry Clubb, who died in 1921). To mark the centenary of Massey’s death a pamphlet and CD have been issued. The CD contains David Shaw’s 1995 biography of Massey, and much of his writing. This is a most worthwhile project. David Shaw and Ian Petticrew seem quite impressed by Massey’s musings on Shakespeare’s sonnets and western religions. For Thomas Cooper it was ‘the craziest stuff I ever saw in print’.

1,190 words

Stephen Roberts. University of Birmingham