Cobbett in His Times

by KarlW.Schweizer (Author), JohnW.Osborne (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1990

  $3.36

  William Cobbett was possibly the greatest English journalist of his times and in this book Cobbett's writing and its influence on public opinion and high government is closely examined. Among the topics considered are Cobbett's writings on all the great crises of his age - his views on education, Ireland and the state of the English countryside, his relations with Sir Frances Burdett and other magnates, his own anti-Semitism, and, crucially, his reactionary Utopian vision. Anyone wishing to understand the condition of England and the way in which it responded to crises at home and overseas may find this book useful. Five of the essays by Osborne have previously been published, but may be found in specialized journals. Two of the essays by Osborne are brand new and based on fresh research. The four essays by Schweizer have been written recently on a foundation of up-to-date scholarship and debate. These essays cover topics in Cobbett's thought. Two of them deal with Cobbett's relationships with his fellow reformers, Sir Francis Burdett and John Cartwright. These relations were often not easy, as Cobbett's tendency to see himself as England's sole prop of virtue made him a difficult colleague. The first essay treats of his ideas from 1800-1806. These are perhaps the most important years of Cobbett's life, as it was then that he moved from being an almost uncritical supporter of William Pitt's government to the beginning of his personal demands for changes in England's way of life. Five of the essays deal with salient topics in Cobbett's career which have not been extensively explored: the Catholic emancipation crisis, the Corn Laws, the Irish question, education, and the anti-semitism, which so many writers on Cobbett find excuses for or evade altogether. The essay entitled William Cobbett - The Rural Rider in Decline is concerned with the last years of his life, including his career in parliament. The next paper, on Cobbett's ideal society, discusses what one writer considers to be the England that this man was really striving to achieve, while the final essay traces the agrarian dimensions of Cobbett's political ideas.