Crown, church and constitution: popular conservatism in England, 1815-1867

Description

Much scholarship on nineteenth-century English workers has been devoted to the radical reform politics that powerfully unsettled the social order in the century's first decades. Comparatively neglected have been the impetuous patriotism, royalism, and xenophobic anti-Catholicism that countless men and women demonstrated in the early Victorian period. This much-needed study of the era's "conservatism from below" explores the role of religion in everyday culture and the Tories' successful mobilization across class boundaries. Long before they were able to vote, large swathes of the lower classes embraced Britain's monarchical, religious, and legal institutions in the defense of traditional English culture.;Celebrating the monarchy : loyalism, radicalism and the crowd, 1820-1832 -- "True friends of Her Majesty" : plebeian conservatives and crown, constitution and patriotism -- "Above all, be faithful to your God" : confessional conflicts and plebeian conservatives -- Conservative antics, protest or racism? : anti-Catholic aspects of English street culture -- In the name of inequality? : Tory radicalism, social protest and plebeian ideas of justice -- "Beer and Britannia" or "Moral reform"? : paternalistic populism, self-improvement and gender.