William Cobbett and Rural Popular Culture

This is the first rural and cultural study of the great English countryman William Cobbett (1763–1835). It binds Cobbett's radical career to his rural heritage and to the experiences and politics of agricultural workers during the early nineteenth century. As a radical, Cobbett's first quest was to represent the hardships of the labouring poor, and he adopted the labourers' cultural experiences and class consciousness as the basis of his political platform. He revolutionized press history b...