Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 English Sermons and tracts as media of debate on the French Revolution 1789–99
- 2 Interpretations of anti-Jacobinism
- 3 The fragmented ideology of reform
- 4 Radicalism, revolution and political culture: an Anglo-French comparison
- 5 Revolution, war and the nation state: the British and French experiences 1789–1801
- 6 War, revolution and the crisis of the British empire
- 7 Patriotism and the English state in the 1790s
- 8 Conservatism and stability in British society
- 9 English society and revolutionary politics in the 1790s: the case for insurrection
- Index
3 - The fragmented ideology of reform
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 English Sermons and tracts as media of debate on the French Revolution 1789–99
- 2 Interpretations of anti-Jacobinism
- 3 The fragmented ideology of reform
- 4 Radicalism, revolution and political culture: an Anglo-French comparison
- 5 Revolution, war and the nation state: the British and French experiences 1789–1801
- 6 War, revolution and the crisis of the British empire
- 7 Patriotism and the English state in the 1790s
- 8 Conservatism and stability in British society
- 9 English society and revolutionary politics in the 1790s: the case for insurrection
- Index
Summary
Historians have invoked a wide range of factors to explain why reformers in the 1790s failed to obtain their objectives. Government repression, the strength of the popular loyalist movement, the pervasive influence of a sophisticated conservative ideology, the resilience of the institutions of monarchy, aristocracy and the Church of England, or the pluralism of British culture and the responsiveness of its institutions to the needs of the poor, have all been cited as key factors in this failure. So, too, have the ideological disagreements amongst reformers and the factionalism in the organisations for reform:
The reform movement was hopelessly divided on what changes ought to be made and none of the competing elements could rally adequate support in or out of Parliament… The evidence… shows how the radicals were divided among themselves, how most of them failed to take their ideas to their logical conclusions and how all of them failed to devise any effective means of implementing their policies.
It is primarily with this last claim that this chapter takes issue. It does not deny that there were substantial disagreements among reformers over both means and ends, but it challenges the view that these contributed significantly to their failure to achieve parliamentary reform. In doing so, it also seeks to cast doubt upon the adequacy of explanations of the failure of reform which do not recognise that the radical agenda was as much the outcome of the political struggles of the 1790s as it was their cause.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The French Revolution and British Popular Politics , pp. 50 - 77Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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