London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and Politics from the Restoration until the Exclusion Crisis

by Tim Harris

Overview

This study of the political attitudes of ordinary Londoners during the reign of Charles II examines not only the manifestations of public opinion - for example, riot and demonstration - but also the manner of its formation - religious experience, economic activity, and exposure to mass political propaganda. Professor Harris shows to be misleading the conventional view, that the whigs enjoyed the support of the London masses, and the tories were essentially anti-populist. Both sides had public support during the exclusion crisis, and this division stemmed from fundamental religious tensions within London political culture, dating back to 1660 and before. Attractively illustrated with polemical contemporary engravings, London Crowds demonstrates clearly the value of bringing together both high and low activity into a truly integrated social history of politics, and sheds important new light not just on urban agitation but on the nature of late-Stuart party conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521398459
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/25/1990
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Approaches to the crowd; 2. Reconstructing the political culture of the people; 3. The people and the restoration; 4. The problem of religion; 5. Whig mass propaganda during the exclusion crisis; 6. The tory response; 7. Crowd politics and exclusion; 8. The economics of crowd politics; 9. A divided society; Bibliography; Index.