For two generations following the overthrow of the absolutist monarchy in France in 1789 until the revolution of 1848, political upheaval broke out across Europe--except, it seems, in Britain. Why? For a century historians dismissed revolutionary outbursts as mere economic protest or the work of trouble-makers. This book takes the full measure of protest and revolution in England, from the Jacobins of the 1790s and the Luddites of 1812 to the Chartists of 1839-48. Royle challenges the assertion that "Britain was different," drawing on recent research to show how the revolutionaries were defeated by government propaganda and the strength of popular conservatism.

Examining the riots in England of 1831, this text focuses on the workers, who were attempting to arrest the decline in wages and jobs through strikes and riotous behaviour. The work clarifies specific social, economic, and political structures which created the possibility of such events.

Covers the momentous reforms in the British electoral system during the period from the Great Reform Act of 1832 to 1918 when women were given the vote. The study charts the series of Reform Acts right through the period, involving rather more attention to those important changes in the 1880s which are often underplayed.