Democratic Passions: The politics of feeling in British popular radicalism, 1809–48

Matthew Roberts

doi:10.7765/9781526137050

This book takes a fresh look at British radicalism in the first half of the nineteenth century from the perspective of the new and burgeoning field of the history of emotions. It represents a major challenge to the ways in which historians have studied political culture in modern Britain by showing how we must break away from teleological assumptions about the rise of the rational public sphere. Politics did not just revolve around ideas, power, organisation and practice but also feeling. This project raises questions fundamental to politics in every age: should the public sphere be a domain free from feeling, or at least one where restraint is exercised? What are the consequences for democratic polities where either affective restraint, or its opposite, excess, operates? Are there occasions when public displays of feeling are acceptable (or less acceptable), and, if so, when and why?

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Democratic Passions

The politics of feeling in British popular radicalism, 1809–48

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Contents

Front Matter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-v

List of figures
pp vi-vi

Acknowledgements
pp vii-ix

Abbreviations
pp x-x

Introduction: The Queen Caroline agitation of 1820
pp 1-24

1 - William Cobbett’s anti-‘feelosofee’
pp 25-57

2 - Richard Carlile and the embodiment of reason’s republic
pp 58-89

3 - Robert Owen, harmonic passions and the practice of happiness
pp 90-114

4 - Gothic King Dick: Richard Oastler and Tory-radical feeling
pp 115-145

5 - His Satanic Majesty’s chaplain: J.R. Stephens and the prophetic politics of the heart
pp 146-175

6 - William Lovett and the battle for asceticism in early Chartism
pp 176-206

7 - Daniel O’Connell, Feargus O’Connor and the politics of ‘anger’
pp 207-235

Conclusion
pp 236-241

Select bibliography
pp 242-251

Index
pp 252-262

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Democratic Passions

The politics of feeling in British popular radicalism, 1809–48

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