This book looks like a model for what temperance historians may attempt in their specialization. Among other things, I was interested in the concept of political theater. >Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 08:25:07 -0400 >From: Richard Gorrie <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: REV: Chase on Pickering and Tyrrell, _The People's Bread..._ >Sender: H-Net List for British and Irish History <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Reply-to: H-Net List for British and Irish History <[log in to unmask]> >Original-recipient: rfc822;[log in to unmask] > >Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 09:54:07 +0100 >From: "Dr David Nash" <[log in to unmask]> > >H-NET BOOK REVIEW >Published by [log in to unmask] (June 2000) > >Paul A. Pickering and Alex Tyrrell. _The People's Bread: A >History of the Anti-Corn Law League_. London and New York: >Leicester University Press, 2000. x + 304 pp. Map, >illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography and index. £50 >(hardback). ISBN 0 7185 0218 3. > >Reviewed for H-Albion by Malcolm Chase <[log in to unmask]>, >School of Continuing Education, University of Leeds > >Rescuing the Anti-Corn Law League from the condescension of posterity > >This is an important and significant book, of interest not only >to historians of mid-nineteenth politics but also of pressure >groups, religion, the theatre, women and society generally. It >represents a considerable advance on existing knowledge of the >Anti-Corn Law League (ACLL). The League was an >extra-parliamentary agitation to repeal those laws which, from >1815 until 1846, taxed imported grain on a sliding scale in >inverse proportion to the cost of domestic wheat. Along with >Chartism the ACLL dominated domestic politics in the late 1830s >and the first half of the 1840s and the two have been subject to >frequent comparison. Yet oddly, as the authors point out in the >introduction to this book, the historiography of Chartism has >outstripped in size, scope and imagination that of the ACLL. >Norman McCord's path-breaking study of 1958 [1] has remained the >standard account. Slightly amended in 1968, it has been largely >unchallenged by either monograph or journal literature. >Pickering and Tyrrell are well-placed to reverse this, given >their reputation as historians of Chartism and early Victorian >moral radicalism.[2] > >So, what remains of McCord's account now that Pickering and >Tyrrell have completed their work? The answer is a great deal. >The present authors do not attempt to replace the narrative >account McCord deftly constructed of the League's origins, >development and end. Nor do they really subvert the implication >of his concluding chapter that, within and upon 'the decisive >theatre' of parliamentary politics, the ACLL was a limited >force. On the other hand, even in 1958, the limitations of >McCord's approach to the League and its history were recognised, >notably in a review by Geoffrey Best that lamented the author >bustled his readers past 'many open doorways'.[3] Pickering and >Tyrrell lead us through and beyond these doorways in a vivid and >skilful exploration of the cultural and political baggage of >ACLL supporters. The result is a volume that extends and >challenges our knowledge of the League and its times. > >The stock image of the ACLL (encapsulated in exam questions >along the lines of 'Chartism failed and the League succeeded. >Discuss') is of a tight, cohesive and somewhat sober >organisation, dominated by Mancunian manufacturers. One reason >why modern histories of this body have been so thin on the >ground has probably derived from an abiding perception that it >was worthy but dull. The authors of the present volume >gleefully demolish this cliché. The book opens with an >electrifying lecture in 1842 by James Massie, an Anglican >clergyman and one of the League's star platform orators. Massie >drew a direct comparison between the League and the early German >reformation and, reaching his climax, imitated Luther's >celebrated treatment of one papal bull by setting fire to a copy >of a Corn Bill that had recently been placed before parliament. >Then, as the audience ground the ashes underfoot, he declaimed, >'So perish all the laws that would interfere with the food of >the people!' (p. 1) The account of this episode sets the scene >for much that follows, for at the heart of the book lies a vivid >account of the ACLL as political theatre, which skilfully >explores the iconography and rituals of its lectures, dinners, >bazaars and conferences. Not for nothing did the League erect >in 1840 a vast Free Trade Pavilion on the site of the epochal >Peterloo meeting of 1819. Pickering and Tyrrell also show how >the ACLL promoted itself as the vanguard of the struggle to >throw off the Norman Yoke, and how committed its active >supporters had been to political causes that ranged from the >Queen Caroline agitation of 1820 to opposing the sale of >Manchester's municipal gas undertaking in 1834. > >The main vehicle for this political analysis is a detailed >collective biography of the 105 councilmen of the Manchester >Anti-Corn Law Association (ACLA) in 1839-40. This throws up a >number of interesting insights. They ranged in age from 65 down >to 21, but at 46 their average age was a full decade older than >Pickering's sample of Manchester and Salford Chartists in >1840.[4] Thirty per cent were Unitarians (who numbered only 2 >per cent of the church-going population of Manchester at the >religious census of 1851). Another 15 per cent were Quakers. >No more than a half were native to Lancashire, but the authors >are able to show that overwhelmingly councilmen were long-term >Manchester residents. No surprises there then; but the ACLA >Council was very far from being merely a forum for the major >cotton manufacturers. There was a broad balance of commercial >and manufacturing interests, leavened by the professions. It >also included linen drapers, grocers and a baker, for example, >'a substantial minority...hard-working men, not of the "first >station", who have dropped out of the history of the League' (p. >228). The book is also attentive to the support received by the >ACLL from wage-earners. Sensibly, it does not seek to make more >of this than the evidence will sustain. In particular, the >authors find 'little evidence' of working-class women's >involvement (p. 133); but they show that the League cannot be >marginalised or dismissed by historians of labour. It is >regrettable, therefore, that they glide over the issue of the >League's alleged complicity in the 1842 mass strike wave in a >few lines. > >Of the fifty-four men in the Manchester ACLA sample whose >marital status can be confirmed, fifty-two were married, six of >them to the sisters or daughters of fellow councilmen. Of those >fifty-two, no less than twenty-nine had wives who were >themselves active supporters of the ACLL. In its treatment of >women this book constitutes a massive advance on existing >knowledge, though it should be read in conjunction with an >illuminating essay recently published by Simon Morgan.[5] McCord >had only four references to women (all of them citations of >Harriet Martineau's _History of England during the Thirty Years' >Peace_). Pickering and Tyrrell point out Martineau donated a >novel about the civilising effects of free trade to the ACLL, >but they also do very much more than that. The result is a >rounded appraisal of the League as a forum in which women played >an important part, ancillary it is true to its internal >governance but central to the cultural life that the authors are >at pains to reclaim from obscurity. > >Similarly revisionist is their attempt to establish the >geographical scope of the League. A separate chapter deals with >Wales and Ireland; and their survey of the English provinces and >Scotland identifies 223 anti-corn law associations, from Perth >southwards to Truro. The League, in the authors' view, 'worked >hard to create a nationwide public opinion based on its version >of Britishness' (p. 197). It's their belief that it succeeded, >creating along the way a culture that accelerated the >development of political parties and the idea of representative >politics. Within Westminster, they also argue that the ACLL >provided a template for subsequent 'guerrilla warfare' from the >back benches, though this claim is less convincing, despite an >appendix detailing members of parliament who voted for total and >immediate repeal of the Corn Laws on each of the five occasions >this was presented to the Commons, 1842-45. The real strength >of this study lies in its extensive research into the provinces, >to conjure some original and profound insights into the internal >life and 'the ways and means' of the ACLL. In their concluding >paragraph, Paul Pickering and Alex Tyrrell invoke E.P.Thompson's >oft-quoted trope concerning the enormous condescension of >posterity. The ACLL, they argue, has similarly been victim of >posterity's condescension. 'The League we have sought to present >was a much more varied, vital, robust and even radical >organisation. Our League upheld an inclusive definition of the >British nation in terms of nationality, gender and class that >challenged the existing order in a number of fundamental ways'. >Their rescue operation does not render McCord's study redundant, >but this was never their purpose. Pickering and Tyrrell open up >new ways of seeing not just the ACLL but also the cultural >milieu of the early Victorian middle class. > >[1]. Norman McCord. _The Anti-Corn Law League, 1838-1846_. >London: George Allen & Unwin, 1958. > >[2]. See especially Paul A. Pickering. _Chartism and the >Chartists in Manchester and Salford_. London: Macmillan, 1995; >and Alex Tyrrell, _Joseph Sturge and the Moral Radical Party in >Early Victorian Britain_. Bromley: Helm, 1987. > >[3]. Review in _Historical Journal_ 2 (1959), pp. 89-93. > >[4]. Pickering, _Chartism_, p. 140. > >[5]. Simon Morgan, 'Domestic economy and political agitation: >women and the Anti-Corn Law League, 1839-46', in Kathryn Gleadle >and Sarah Richardson (eds), _Women in British Politics, >1760-1860: The Power of the Petticoat_. London: Macmillan, >2000. > > Copyright 2001 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the > redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, > educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the > author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and > H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses > contact the Reviews editorial staff: [log in to unmask]