MARC BAER Professor and Chair of the Department of History, Hope College, Michigan, USA. His research focuses on the cultural, social and political history of Britain - especially London - since the late eighteenth century. He is the author of Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London (Oxford University Press, 1992).

• List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Commencement: The Boundaries of Politics Stories: Whig, Radical, and Tory Westminster Tribunes: The Personality of Democracy Words: The Languages of Democracy Crowds: The Decline of Disorder Spaces: Civic, Public, Private and Social Rituals: Performing Demotic Culture Associations: From Actors to Audiences Pictures: Democracy Imagined Conclusion: The Workshop of Democracy Appendix: Westminster Election Results, 1780-1891 Bibliography Index