Contested Sites deserves a wide readership. It contains much I found new and it has prompted me to wonder what other radical monuments lurk forgotten around the country and also what might be said to constitute one.
Royle attempts to answer the question why there was no revolution? He looks at the nature of the popular movements arguing that their leaders knew both their own limits and those of their followers. He further argues that the revolutionaries were always in the minority.
BOOK REVIEW: Revolutionary Britannia? Reflections On The Threat Of Revolution In Britain Read Post »
Although he would have denied the charge and hated the idea, Wilkes was in some ways a precursor to Thomas Paine. His career, foreshortened in history textbooks to the slogan ‘Wilkes and Liberty’ is a fascinating one.
BOOK REVIEW: John Wilkes, A Friend Of Liberty Read Post »
The book is well illustrated and if I have any criticisms, they are of a selfish desire to want to know more about the books and book collecting exploits of Eddie and his wife, which could well, I suspect, make a book in themselves.
BOOK REVIEW: Edmund Frow (Eddie) Read Post »
This important book takes a close look at Paine’s deism set within the context of his historical period. The author examines deistical concepts both in religious terms and in its political implications and impact. In doing this she follows Paine’s life and work, examines the reaction to his deistical ideas.
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Paine Contre L’imposture Des Prêtres Read Post »
Working-class republicanism became very influential in the early period of the second half of the 19th century, particularly in the large industrial towns, though only in Ireland can it be said to have evolved into a mass movement, despite the hostility there of the Roman Catholic sect.
BOOK REVIEW: The Republic Must Come, The English Republicans Of The 1870s Read Post »
If pressed to identify any feature giving the book a degree of importance which removes it from simply being a recreational read, I would point to material in it which social historians will find of great value, although this is expressed in an entertaining manner rather than in terms of what one would expect in a scholarly treatise.
BOOK REVIEW: Beyond The Call Of Duty, Memoirs Of An Excise Man Read Post »
This short essay is unquestionably a major contribution to Paine studies, though likely on the controversial side in that it casts Paine in a role few of his admirers would have thought possible, for it is the belief of the author that Paine was ‘an undercover agent’ for George III.
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Paine: The Case Of The King Of England And His Officers Of Excise Read Post »
This pamphlet makes a stimulating and informative read. Harney is known to have held Paine’s memory in high regard and may even have been one of the Chartists who influenced the movement to reprint and publish their own edition of Rights of Man.
BOOK REVIEW: Deptford’s Red Republican, George Julian Harney Read Post »
Moncure Daniel Conway is owed a debt by all those who admire Thomas Paine, for it was Conway who first put him on the biographical map by compiling a comprehensive biography which at one stroke made all previous works of a similar character.
BOOK REVIEW: The Life Of Thomas Paine Read Post »
The author acknowledges Burke to have been a ‘great man’ but one who was ‘scarcely rational about human rights’, who resorts to sneering when he fails to have better of an argument. ‘This man’ concludes the author, ‘must have had a large mental block’.
BOOK REVIEW: Debate Aborted. Burke, Priestley. Paine And The Revolution In France Read Post »
This is unquestionably an excellent biography of the great radical, but it is far from being the definitive biography. In fact I do not think the author had in mind writing such a biography, rather it is, as its name indicates, a book which lays emphasis on Paine’s political ideas and influence.
BOOK REVIEW: Tom Paine, A Political Life Read Post »
