Social Unrest and Popular Protest in England, 1780-1840 by 
'By a Flash and a Scare' by
'By a Flash and a Scare' illuminates the darker side of rural life in the nineteenth century. Flashpoints such as the Swing riots, Tolpuddle, and the New Poor Law riots have long attracted the attention of historians, but here John E. Archer focuses on the persistent war waged in the countryside during the 1800s, analysing the prevailing climate of unrest, discontent, and desperation. In this detailed and scholarly study, based on intensive research among the local records of Norfolk and Suffolk, Dr Archer identifies and examines the three most serious crimes of protest in the countryside - arson, animal maiming and poaching. He shows how rural society in East Anglia was shaped by terror and oppression in equal measure. Social crime and covert protest were an integral part of the ordinary life of the rural poor. They did not protest infrequently, they protested all the time. Incendiary attacks were repeatedly the meeting points for large displays of collective protest and celebration, were expressions of grievance, and marked a stage in the development of the rural war. Animal maiming was a retrospective individualistic response to some personal harm and was intended to show that the powerless were indeed capable of striking back. The majority of country people never accepted the game laws. No armies of keepers, no statute book of laws, no mantraps, and certainly no titled gentleman, could dissuade them from their belief that poaching was not a crime. These actions, along with anonymous and threatening letters, were the constant reminders and realities for the landed classes to remain on their guard. 'By a Flash and a Scare' dispels any lingering notions of a 'green and pleasant land', and makes an important contribution to our understanding of life in the nineteenth century countryside. John E. Archer is an honorary research fellow at Edge Hill University. He has published widely on 19th century protest and crime. He is currently working on the history of violence in the north west of England.
Clanship to Crofters' War by
Received to wide acclaim when first published in the 1990s, this absorbing book remains one of the most important, influential and widely read histories of the Scottish Highlands from the end of the Jacobite Risings to the great crofters' rebellion of the 1880s. T. M. Devine argues that the Highlands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the wholesale transformation of a society at a pace without parallel anywhere else in western Europe. This is an important book for all those interested in the history of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and for students and scholars of Scottish history, social history and rural society.
Captain Rock by
Named for its mythical leader "Captain Rock," avenger of agrarian wrongs, the Rockite movement of 1821-24 in Ireland was notorious for its extraordinary violence. In Captain Rock, James S. Donnelly, Jr., offers both a fine-grained analysis of the conflict and a broad exploration of Irish rural society after the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Originating in west Limerick, the Rockite movement spread quickly under the impact of a prolonged economic depression. Before long the insurgency embraced many of the better-off farmers. The intensity of the Rockites' grievances, the frequency of their resort to sensational violence, and their appeal on such key issues as rents and tithes presented a nightmarish challenge to Dublin Castle--prompting in turn a major reorganization of the police, a purging of the local magistracy, the introduction of large military reinforcements, and a determined campaign of judicial repression. A great upsurge in sectarianism and millenarianism, Donnelly shows, added fuel to the conflagration. Inspired by prophecies of doom for the Anglo-Irish Protestants who ruled the country, the overwhelmingly Catholic Rockites strove to hasten the demise of the landed elite they viewed as oppressors. Drawing on a wealth of sources--including reports from policemen, military officers, magistrates, and landowners as well as from newspapers, pamphlets, parliamentary inquiries, depositions, rebel proclamations, and threatening missives sent by Rockites to their enemies--Captain Rock offers a detailed anatomy of a dangerous, widespread insurgency whose distinctive political contours will force historians to expand their notions of how agrarian militancy influenced Irish nationalism in the years before the Great Famine of 1845-51.
Captain Rock, Night Errant by
It has long been known that the anonymous or threatening letter played a significant role in pre-Famine Ireland. Some such texts have previously been available to the general reader, spread through a variety of works on the period (including State of the Country series, local newspapers, Parliamentary Papers and old manuscript sources). Dating from the 1801-45 period, including an extensive introduction which sets out in some detail the concepts involved, the book is a treasure trove of historical material, particularly for those interested in how people reacted to the collapse of grain prices in 1821, the 1822 'Rockite disturbances' and the Great Famine which began in 1845. The material has been taken in the main from the huge bulk of correspondence and reports which found its way to Dublin Castle from all over the Irish countryside, but is also supplemented by newspaper reports and the evidence produced before various parliamentary enquiries. Relevant counties: ULSTER Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Tyrone; MUNSTER Clare, Cork, Kerry Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford; LEINSTER: Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, King's, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow; CONNACHT: Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo. TOTAL: 483 letters are printed and analyzed. Between them, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Westmeath account for 179 letters.
Protest, Politics and Work in Rural England, 1700-1850 by
Rural workers in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England were not passive victims in the face of rapid social change. Carl J. Griffin shows that they deployed an extensive range of resistances to defend their livelihoods and communities. Locating protest in the wider contexts of work, poverty and landscape change, this new text offers the first critical overview of this growing area of study.
The Rural War: Captain Swing and the Politics of Protest by
Beginning in Kent in the summer of 1830 before spreading throughout the country, the Swing Riots were the most dramatic and widespread rising of the English rural poor. Seeking an end to their immiseration, the protestors destroyed machines, demanded higher wages and more generous poor relief, and even frequently resorted to incendiarism to enforce their modest demands. Occurring against a backdrop of revolutions in continental Europe and a political crisis, Swing to many represented a genuine challenge to the existing ruling order, provoking a bitter and bloody repression.Now available in paperback for the first time, this study offers a vivid account of this defining moment in British history. It is shown that the protests were more organised, intensive and politically motivated than has hitherto been thought, representing complex statements about the nature of authority, gender and the politics of rural life. This book will become essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of the English countryside: specialists, students and general readers alike.
Remembering Protest in Britain Since 1500 by
This book offers the first systematic study of the multiple and contested ways in which protest is remembered. Drawing on work in social and cultural history, cultural and historical geography, psychology, anthropology, critical heritage studies, and memory studies, Remembering Protest focuses on the dynamic and lived nature of past protests, asking how conflicted communities and individuals made sense of and mobilized protest past in forging the future. Written by several of the leading historians and historical geographers of protest in early modern and modern Britain, the chapters span the period from 1500 to c.1850 while also speaking to the politics of past protests in the present. In so doing, it also offers the first showcase of the variety of approaches that comprises the vibrant and intellectually fecund 'new protest history'. Empirically rich but conceptually sophisticated, this book will appeal to those with an interest in protest history, and early modern and modern British history, and historical geography more generally.
Petticoat Heroes by
The wave of unrest which took place in the 1840s in Wales known as "the Rebecca riots" stands out as a success story within the generally gloomy annals of popular struggle and defeat: farmers and workers, outlandishly dressed in bonnets and petticoats, showed their outrage against unfair taxes by attacking tollgates and other symbols of perceived injustice. Petticoat Heroes draws on the fields of cultural history, gender studies, and anthropology to present fresh and alternative arguments on the meaning of Rebeccaite costume and ritual, the significance of the feminine in protest, and the links between protest and popular culture. An epilogue discusses the Rebecca riots in the context of the contemporary resurgence of leaderless protest around the world including the Occupy and Anonymous movements.
The Unquiet Countryside by
First published in 1989 The Unquiet Countryside chronicles rural crime and unrest in the English countryside from seventeenth century down to the end of the Victorian era. The authors highlight some of the most striking aspects of the countryside of the past: the extent and nature of rural crime and protest; riots over food; the Swing riots of 1830; poaching, arson, and animal maiming; the relations between landowners and the rural community; and the eventual new outlet for farmworkers in the growth of labour organizations. The volume expands our understanding of the rural past and directs new light on Britain’s rural heritage. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of British history, agricultural history, and history in general.
Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848 by
This book is a wide-ranging survey of the rise of mass movements for democracy and workers' rights in northern England. It is a provocative narrative of the closing down of public space and dispossession from place. The book offers historical parallels for contemporary debates about protests in public space and democracy and anti-globalisation movements. In response to fears of revolution from 1789 to 1848, the British government and local authorities prohibited mass working-class political meetings and societies. Protesters faced the privatisation of public space. The 'Peterloo Massacre' of 1819 marked a turning point. Radicals, trade unions and the Chartists fought back by challenging their exclusion from public spaces, creating their own sites and eventually constructing their own buildings or emigrating to America. This book also uncovers new evidence of protest in rural areas of northern England, including rural Luddism. It will appeal to academic and local historians, as well as geographers and scholars of social movements in the UK, France and North America.
Riotous Assemblies: Popular Protest in Hanoverian England by 
The Last Rising of the Agricultural Labourers by
The Hernhill Rising of 1838 was the last battle fought on English soil, the last revolt against the New Poor Law, and England's last millenarian rising. The bloody 'Battle of Bosenden Wood', fought in a corner of rural Kent, was the culmination of a revolt led by the self-styled 'Sir William Courtenay'. It was also, despite the greater fame of the 1830 Swing Riots, the last rising of the agricultural labourers. Barry Reay provides us with the first comprehensive and scholarly analysis of the abortive rising, its background, and its social context, based on intensive research, particularly in local archives. He presents a unique case-study of popular mobilization in nineteenth-century England, giving us a vivid portrait of the day-to-day existence of the farm labourer and the life of the hamlet. Dr. Reay explores the wider context of agrarian relations, rural reform, protest and control through the fascinating story of The Last Rising of the Agricultural Labourers.
Weapons of the Weak by
This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors show that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run.