This is the first collection of essays on Chartism by leading social historian Dorothy Thompson, whose work radically transformed the way in which Chartism is understood. Reclaiming Chartism as a fully blown working-class movement, Thompson intertwines her penetrating analyses of class with groundbreaking research uncovering the role played by women in the movement.
Throughout her essays, Thompson strikes a delicate balance between on-the-ground accounts of local uprisings, snappy portraits of high-profile Chartist figures as well as rank-and-file men and women, and more theoretical, polemical interventions.
Of particular historical and political significance is the previously unpublished substantial essay coauthored by Dorothy and Edward Thompson, a superb piece of local historical research by two social historians then on the brink of notable careers.

Dorothy Thompson (1923-2011) was a social historian, a leading expert on the Chartist movement, including The Chartists, Outsiders: Class, Gender and Nation and Queen Victoria.
Stephen Roberts is historian of Victorian Britain, with a particular interest in Chartism. He has written or edited a number of well-known books on this subject. He was taught, as both an undergraduate and postgraduate, by Dorothy Thompson. He is currently Visiting Research Fellow in Victorian History at Newman University, Birmingham.