Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 / Edition 1

by Paul Kleber Monod

Overview

Jacobitism, or support for the exiled Stuarts after the revolution of 1688, has become a topic of great interest in recent years. Historians have debated its influence on Parliamentary politics, but none has yet attempted to explore its broader implications in English society. This study offers a wide-ranging analysis of every aspect of Jacobite activity, from pamphlets and newspapers to songs, cartoons, riots, seditious words, clubs, and armed insurrection. It argues that Jacobitism was not confined to a tiny group of fanatical reactionaries, and that it had a profound impact on various aspects of English life including political thought, literature, popular culture, religion, and elite sociability. It contributed a great deal both to the emergence of conservative attitudes in eighteenth-century England and to the development of a radical critique of Whig government. This paradoxical legacy makes Jacobitism a subject of considerable significance in English political, social, and cultural history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521447935
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/04/1993
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	436
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x 1.18(d)

Table of Contents

List of plates; List of maps, tables and graph; Note for reader; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction: defining Jacobitism; Part I. Jacobite Rhetoric: 1. Laws of man and God: the moral foundations of Jacobite political argument; 2. Jemmy's the lad that is lordly: popular culture and Jacobite verse; 3. Look, love and follow: images of the last Stuarts in Jacobite art; Part II. Structures of Jacobitism: 4. Jacobite underworlds: the practice of treason; 5. Religion and loyalty: Jacobitism and religious life; Part III. Popular Jacobitism; 6. The torrent: riots and demonstrations, 1688–1715; 7. The day will be our own: the tradition of Jacobite protest, 1715–80; 8. All for the lawful heir? the problem of Jacobite seditious words; Part IV. Two Faces of Treason: 9. Lives of the gentry: Jacobitism and the landed elite; 10. By a principle of duty: the Jacobite rebels; Conclusion: Jacobitism in history; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Paul Monod has now undertaken the task of analyzing and codifying all this revisionist material, adding to it the fruits of his own research in English local archives, which is extensive and deep, in an attempt to give a unified picture of Jacobitism up to the death of Charles Edward....Clearly this is an important book, which must engage the attention of any eighteenth-century historian." Journal of Modern History

"In a brilliant book, covering much entirely new ground, Paul Monod surveys the importance of Jacobitism in English life, concluding that it was considerable. It explores the broader implications of Jacobitism in English society from newspapers, poetry, songs, prints, medals, clubs, riots, seditious words cases and rebellion, all reflecting different types of committment...English society was pluralistic not monolithic, and Monod's book is essential to an understanding of it." Eveline Cruickshanks, Institute of Historical Research

"In recent years Jacobitism has emerged as a centrally important issue in the historiography of eighteenth-century England....It is a subject that has cried out for a chronicler. Paul Kleber Monod has accepted the challenge with a success that will reward all who study the era....admirable clarity and an enticing array of evidence." American Historical Review

"...excellent new study....Happily, Monod's book challenges the idea that the history of Jacobitism is unworthy of serious consideration....Perhaps the greatest strength of Monod's book is its liberation of eighteenth-century history from an essentialist view of Jacobitism, emphasizing instead its myriad ambiguities and contradictions, in particular the tension between adhering to an older cultural ideal of unity and simultaneously advocating toleration and reform." Steven Scherwatzky, Eighteenth-Century Life

"...certainly timely, a part of the revisionism in eighteenth-century historiography that is currently taking Jacobitism very seriously indeed....very useful for those of us working with the political and literary culture of the period...." John Richetti, Studies in English Literature

"...will surely become the standard work on the English movement. Highly recommended...." J.W. Weingart, Choice

"Monod is to be congratulated on broadening our understanding of the complicated psychology of English Jacobitism." Brian W. Hill, English Historical Review

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