Land Reform and Working-class Experience in Britain and the United States, 1800-1862By exploring in detail land reform movements in Britain and the United States, this book transcends traditional labor history and conceptions of class to deepen our understanding of the social, political, and economic history of both countries in the nineteenth century. Although divided by their diverse experiences of industrialization, and living in countries with different amounts of available land, many working people in both Britain and the United States dreamed of free or inexpensive land to release them from the grim conditions of the 1840 s: depressing, overcrowded cities, low wages or unemployment, and stifling lives. Focusing on the Chartist Land Company, the Potters Joint-Stock Emigration Society, and the American National Reform movement, this study analyses the ideas that motivated workers to turn to land reform, the creation of working-class land reform cultures and identities among both men and women, and the international communication that enabled the formation of a transatlantic movement. Though there were similarities in the ideas behind the land reform movements, in their organizational strategies, and in their relationships with other reform movements in the two countries, the author s examination of their grassroots constituencies reveals key differences. In the United States, land reformers included small proprietors as well as artisans and factory workers. In Britain, by contrast, at least a quarter of Chartist Land Company participants lived in cotton-manufacturing towns, strongholds of unpropertied workers and radical activity. When the land reform movements came into contact with the organs of the press and government, the differences in membership became crucial. The Chartist Land Company was repressed by a government alarmed at the prospect of workers autonomy, and the Potters Joint-Stock Emigration Society died the natural death of straitened finances, but the American land reform movement experienced some measure of success so much so that during the revolution in American political parties during the 1850 s, land reform, once a radical issue, became a mainstream plank in the Republican platform |
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Contents
Why Were There WorkingClass Land | 1 |
The Intellectual Heritage of WorkingClass Land | 23 |
LandReform Rhetoric and the Currents of Reform | 52 |
The Competition for Reforming Attentions | 87 |
AngloAmerican | 112 |
Under the Banner of Land Reform in Britain | 160 |
Common terms and phrases
activities Advocate allotments American appeal Association Boston Britain British called cause chapter Chartist Land City claimed Collection Committee common Congress Devyr early economic Emigration England English equal Evans Examiner factory farm farmers Feargus Friend George Henry Hall helped History homestead House ideas independence Industry interest John Jones July June labor Lancashire land company land plan land reform leaders letter Library living London Man's Advocate Manchester Massachusetts meetings ment moral move movement National Reform natural newspaper Northern Star noted O'Connor organization Party petitions political poor popular Potters Preston printed promote proposed radical reported rhetoric scheme Sept shared similar slavery Smith social Society soil Spence Thomas tion towns Trade Union United Voice wages women workers working-class York Young
Bibliographic information
| Title | Land Reform and Working-class Experience in Britain and the United States, 1800-1862 |
| Author | Jamie L. Bronstein |
| Publisher | Stanford University Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 0804734518, 9780804734516 |
| Length | 372 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Labor History / Europe / Great Britain History / United States / 19th Century Law / Intellectual Property / General Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |