Our Original Rights as a People: Representations of the Chartist Encyclopaedic Network and Political, Social and Cultural Change in Early Nineteenth Century Britain

In their struggle for universal suffrage, the Chartists adapted language to further their cause. Adopting the prevailing keywords of the time and reformulating them within their own cultural environment, the Chartists defined and redefined their own political identity and interpreted the situation they lived in. This book is a case study of Chartism as an example of how radical political movements present themselves in language and how they appear in networks of meaning. Chartist vocabulary...