In practice : studies in the language and culture of popular politics in modern Britain / James Epstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Epstein, James.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Political aspects--Great Britain.

English language.

Working class--Political activity--Great Britain.

Working class.

Working class--Political activity.

Populism.

History.

Public opinion.

Political culture.

Politics, Practical.

English language--Political aspects.

Great Britain.

Politics, Practical--Great Britain--Terminology.

Political culture--Great Britain--History.

Public opinion--Great Britain--History.

Populism--Great Britain--History.

Great Britain--Politics and government--18th century.

Politics and government.

Great Britain--Politics and government--19th century.

Physical Description:

206 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2003.

Summary:

This book reflects on popular politics in Britain during the turbulent period of industrialization, focusing on how political meanings were produced and sustained. It is also a spirited series of responses to the changing terrain of historical studies. It takes as its starting point the goal of defining a middle ground between E.P. Thompson's concept of cultural materialism and the postmodern view of culture as a system of signs and codes (with emphasis on the linguistic grounding of experience). The first part of the book evaluates and critiques the work of two of the most influential proponents of the linguistic turn in British historical writing: Gareth Stedman Jones and Patrick Joyce. The second part contains four case studies: the first two treating British political culture in the age of the French Revolution, the third dealing with the role of space in historical reasoning, and the fourth assessing the role of gentleman leaders within popular movements.

Contents:

Introduction: Between Culture and Language 1

Part I Tracking the Turn

1. Rethinking the Categories of Working-Class History 15

2. Turn, Turn, Turn: Victorian Britain's Postmodern Season 34

Part II In Practice

3. "Our Real Constitution": Trial Defense and Radical Memory in the Age of Revolution 59

4. From Ritual Practice to Cultural Text 83

5. Spatial Practices / Democratic Vistas 106

6. The Nineteenth-Century Gentleman Leader Revisited co-written with John Belchem 126.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [147]-199) and index.

ISBN:

0804746621

0804747881

OCLC:

50339879