Re-reading the Constitution: New Narratives in the Political History of England's Long Nineteenth Century

by James Vernon

Overview

Developing the insights of the new cultural history of politics, this book reexamines the debates over the meaning of the English constitution from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, and establishes clearly its centrality to our understanding of English politics, history and national identity. With contributions from some of the most innovative historians in the field, a challenging rereading is provided not only of nineteenth-century politics, but of the current state of English political and cultural history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521464741
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/28/1996
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

List of figures; Notes on the contributors; Acknowledgements; 1. Notes towards an introduction James Vernon; 2. 'Our real constitution': trial defence and radical memory in the age of revolution James Epstein; 3. The English people and their constitution after Waterloo: parliamentary reform, 1815–17 Jonathan Fulcher; 4. Public opinion, violence and the limits of constitutional politics Dror Wahrman; 5. Making room at the public bar: coroners' inquests, medical knowledge and the politics of the constitution in early nineteenth-century England Ian Burney; 6. Republicanism reappraised: anti-monarchism and the English radical tradition, 1850–72 Antony Taylor; 7. The constitution and the narrative structure of Victorian politics Patrick Joyce; 8. Narrating the constitution: the discourse of 'the real' and the fantasies of nineteenth-century constitutional history James Vernon; 9. Gender, class and the constitution: franchise reform in England, 1832–1928 Anna Clark; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Re-reading the Constitutions is a vlauable book, one that advances our understanding of English political culture in the nineteenth century." Bruce L. Kinzer, Canadian Journal of History

"...these essays are fresh, forceful, and well-informed. They contribute to a much-needed rethinking of the nature of the English constitution and nineteenth-century English politics." Martin J. Wiener, Albion

"James Vernon's Re-reading the Constitution: New Narratives in the Political History of England's Long Nineteenth Century is a useful study that reminds us that the monarchy was a part of a wider conception of government." David Nash, Nineteenth Century Studies

From the Publisher