Liberty and Liberticide
The Role of America in Nineteenth-Century British Radicalism
By (author) Michael J. Turner
Publication date:
15 November 2013Length of book:
288 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
235x159mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780739178171
America was important to many British radicals. It was a model, an exemplar, a source of inspiration, and American events were believed to have a bearing on reform debates in Britain. Many scholars focus on the positive impressions of the United States that prominent British radicals entertained, developed, and propagated, but it is necessary also to explore the reasons why some radicals condemned rather than praised America, and to explain how America was conceptualized and used by them, and to what purpose.
Liberty and Liberticide focuses on the influence America exerted over the ideas and activities of nineteenth-century British radicals. While some looked on America as the model of liberty, others associated it with the destruction of liberty. Turner shows how radicals’ views about the United States and the course of Anglo-American relations shaped their domestic reform agenda and their assumptions about British political values and Britain’s place in the world.
Liberty and Liberticide focuses on the influence America exerted over the ideas and activities of nineteenth-century British radicals. While some looked on America as the model of liberty, others associated it with the destruction of liberty. Turner shows how radicals’ views about the United States and the course of Anglo-American relations shaped their domestic reform agenda and their assumptions about British political values and Britain’s place in the world.
The author examines the political, economic, social, and diplomatic interactions between Britain and the US through the eyes of British radicals. . . . Scholars familiar with the themes and debates among radical British politicians may well profit from the labors that went into this book. . . . Some radicals favored US ways, some did not, and some were of mixed opinion; but the second grouping was certainly a minority during the 19th century, when radicals were trying to reform British society and politics. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty.