Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T22:01:54.561Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

WILLIAM LOVETT AND THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT OF THE PEOPLE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1999

DAVID STACK
Affiliation:
Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London

Abstract

This article examines the isomorphic connections between the scientific and political ideas of William Lovett and the National Association for the Political and Social Improvement of the People. It demonstrates that, far from being a mere coincidental device, distinct from his politics, Lovett's scientific ideas helped shape the internal structure of his political radicalism. The same was also true of the National Association more generally. Concepts and assumptions derived from phrenology and physiology served the heuristic function of stimulating the construction of analogous systems which directed and conditioned the version of political radicalism which Lovett and the National Association propagated. This suggests that in the mid-nineteenth century the importance of the organic sciences was more politically subtle than previously thought and that a reconciliation of the ideas of George Combe with political radicalism was possible. This insight is compatible with recent historiographical trends, and opens up new vistas for the study of science in radicalism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank the British Academy, for funding my research, and Miles Taylor and my two anonymous referees, for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.