Steve Poole - Böcker

This lively and accessible book reappraises the often complex relationship between British monarchs and some of their more troublesome subjects in the 'age of revolutions'. By exposing a rationale behind the efforts of the mad and the politically disaffected to intrude upon, assault or pester kings and queens from George III to Victoria, the author casts new light upon the contested languages of constitutionalism, contract theory and the rights of petition. The Hanoverian dynasty sought security from republicanism during the 1790s by reinventing itself as an affable, domestic, flexible and solicitous institution. But majesty and approachability were to prove uneasy bedfellows, and popular frustrations over unanswered petitions could provoke serious personal moments of crisis. In its detailed reconstruction of the mentalities of such unsuccessful and forgotten Royal 'assassins' as Margaret Nicholson, James Hadfield and Dennis Collins, this unique and pioneering study of monarchical history from below will interest the specialist and general reader alike, and provoke fresh controversy over the viability of monarchies in the modern world.

John Thelwall was a Romantic and Enlightenment polymath. In 1794 he was tried and acquitted of high treason, earning himself the disdainful soubriquet 'acquitted felon' from Secretary of State for War, William Windham. Later, Thelwall's interests turned to poetry and plays, and was a collaborator and confidant of Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Captures the substance and scale of popular politics and protest in Bristol over the course of the long eighteenth century.Bristol from Below captures the substance and scale of popular politics and protest in Bristol over the course of the long eighteenth century. It charts the lives of ordinary Bristolians in the making of their city and devotes particular attention to their relationship with the mercantile elites who dominated the city's governing institutions. While not ignoring the contribution of the middling sort to the cultural and political life of the city, the book focusses upon the interaction between authority and plebeian sentiment as a way of analysing the complexities of popular interventions in politics and society. It casts new light on the social dynamics of Bristol's 'goldenage' and how it is remembered in today's city. It also addresses the general themes of class, authority, custom and law that have long engaged eighteenth-century historians. Bristol From Below will have a broad appeal to scholars and students of eighteenth-century social, economic and political history as well as to urban and regional historians and to those interested in the time when Bristol was England's 'Second City'.STEVE POOLE is Professor of History and Heritage at the University of the West of England, Bristol.NICHOLAS ROGERS is Distinguished Research Professor in History at York University, Toronto.