Richard Cobden: Independent Radical

Nicholas C. Edsall

Published by Harvard University Press 1986

Richard Cobden

Independent Radical

Nicholas C. Edsall

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674330818

Overview
Contents

About this book

On Richard Cobden's death, Charles Francis Adams noted in his diary that Cobden "had fought his way to fame and honor by the single force of his character. He had nothing to give. No wealth, no honors, no preferment. He first taught the multitude by precept and example that the right of government was not really to the few, but to the many." Disraeli was no less acute when he remarked that Cobden was "the greatest political character that the pure middle class of this country has yet produced."

In this biography Nicholas Edsall demonstrates how Cobden dominated middle-class radicalism from its high-water mark in the turbulent 1840s to the quieter years immediately before the emergence of the Gladstonian Liberal party in the 1860s. Cobden headed the movement for the incorporation of his adopted city, Manchester; he was the leader of the most successful of Victorian mass agitations, the Anti-Corn Law League, and chief adviser to the movement for the repeal of newspaper taxes; he was a founder of the mid-nineteenth-century peace movement and a vocal opponent of the Crimean War; he was the chief English negotiator of the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of 1860; and he was one of the earliest critics of the modern arms race.

This is the first full-length biography since the publication of the official life more than a century ago. Not only has a good deal of new material become available, but the passage of time has served to underscore Cobden's significance both as a spokesman for the middle class in an era of acute class conflict and as a critic of the aims of great-power diplomacy at a time when his own country was the greatest of powers.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
PART I. Manchester Manufacturer 1832-1838
CHAPTER 1. Family and Finances Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
CHAPTER 2. Education, Travel, and Authorship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
CHAPTER 3. The Political Setting Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
CHAPTER 4. Political Beginnings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
CHAPTER 6. The Incorporation of Manchester Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
PART II. Agitator 1838-1846
CHAPTER 7. Founding the Anti—Corn Law League Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
CHAPTER 8. Building an Agitation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
CHAPTER 9. The League and Electoral Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
CHAPTER 10. The Crisis of 1842 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
CHAPTER 11. The Long Haul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
CHAPTER 12. The Key to Victory? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
CHAPTER 13. Victory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
PART III. Schoolmaster 1846-1856
CHAPTER 14. Transitions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
CHAPTER 15. The Manchester School and Post-Repeal Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
CHAPTER 16. The Manchester School and Educational Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
CHAPTER 17. The Pursuit of Peace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
CHAPTER 18. Protecting the Peace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
CHAPTER 19. War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
PART IV. Diplomatist 1856-1865
CHAPTER 20. Postwar Casualties Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
CHAPTER 21. Negotiating a Treaty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
CHAPTER 22. The Third French Invasion Panic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
CHAPTER 23. Britain and the American Civil War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	376
CHAPTER 24. The Elder Statesman of Radicalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
ABBREVIATIONS. SELECTED. BIBLIOGRAPHY. NOTES. INDEX
ABBREVIATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	428
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	429
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	435
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	457

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2013
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 465
Illustrations
- Other: 1 Frontispiz
Keywords: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain; HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century; HISTORY / General; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901.; Cobden, Richard, 1804-1865.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674330818

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1986
ISBN: 9780674330801