Popular virtue

Popular virtue is the first in-depth study of the changing nature of moral politics within working-class Radicalism between 1820 and 1870. Through study of the lives, activism and intellectual influences of a number of key leaders of working-class Radicalism, this book highlights how Radicalism's attitudes to morality and everyday life shifted from a festive and libertarian culture that advocated sexual liberty and gender equality in the 1820s-30s to a more austere and ascetic politics that emphasized moral improvement, temperance and frugality after the 1840s. Despite the fracturing of this culture with the decline of Chartism in the 1850s, Popular virtue **highlights how the moral politics of the 1840s possessed important legacies in not only the politics of Popular Liberalism and the Reform League but also in heterodox medicine and self-help.

Autorentext
Tom Scriven is Hallsworth Research Fellow at the University of Manchester

Klappentext
Popular virtue is the first in-depth study of the moral politics of working-class Radicalism in the nineteenth century. During this period popular Radicalism shifted from an engagement with moral, sexual and gender heterodoxies towards a more austere and ascetic moral politics, following the repression of the early Chartist movement. In highlighting this transition and the tangled political legacy after the decline of Chartism, the book uncovers important traditions within nineteenth-century working-class politics and challenges dominant notions of continuity throughout the century. The book looks at the lives, work and intellectual influences of a number of key but under-researched Chartist leaders, from the foundation of the movement in the 'freethought' culture of the 1820s to the development of social-democratic Chartism in the 1850s. From the outset these figures drew from Enlightenment thought to challenge orthodoxies and develop a Radical movement which sought wholesale political, social, economic and moral change. Following the failure of Chartism's early revolutionary strategy in 1839, these activists reformulated their political ideas to emphasize unified physical, mental and moral improvement so as to peacefully challenge political corruption and social deprivation. This new strategy was widely popular within the movement, before being rejected again after 1848 when a new leadership once more emphasized revolutionary politics and socialism. However, the legacy of the moral-improvement culture of the 1840s was present in the mid-Victorian worlds of alternative medicine, Popular Liberalism, and self-help. Popular virtue will be invaluable to scholars and students of political, social and cultural history, as well as historians of religion, sexuality and gender. Its accessible style will ensure that it appeals to those interested in Radical politics more broadly.

Inhalt
Introduction1 A 'Radical Underworld'? The infidel roots of Chartist culture2 Politics and everyday life in early Chartism3 From insurrection to the 'little republic of the home'4 Medicine, popular science, and Chartism's improvement culture5 Communal self-improvement after the 'disasters of the Strike'6 The fragmented legacies of Chartist moral politicsConclusionIndex