The Offbeat Radicals
The British Tradition of Alternative Dissent
Geoffrey Ashe
A fascinating history of British dissent since the French Revolution, by one of our foremost historians
'The most important event in the 19th century was the English revolution that never happened.' G.K. Chesterton Mired in poverty and injustice, late 18th and early 19th century Britain was as rife for revolutionary change as its continental neighbour, and many of its leading intellectuals were keen to stoke the fires. However, the Reign of Terror and later Napoleonic wars that engulfed post-Revolutionary France were to have a serious effect on the development of Britain's own radicals. Former advocates such as Wordsworth and Coleridge quickly recognised the bloody shortcomings of the revolution and the free-thinkers of the nineteenth century began to assemble a tradition of dissent aimed at a more benevolent social reform and seeking after justice. Drawing on the lives and works of a unique collection of scholars, philosophers and literary figures - among them Wordsworth, Shelley, William Blake, William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Eliot, the Chartists, Thomas Carlyle, and many others - Offbeat Radicals shows how the heirs of English radical thought, some visionary and all ahead of their time, sowed the seeds for future British reform, in opposition to the disappointment of the Revolution. Geoffrey Ashe's latest work is an authoritative exploration of one of the most intriguing periods of British historical thought.
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About Geoffrey Ashe Geoffrey Ashe, considered by many to be the premier Arthurian scholar in the world today, is a writer and lecturer specialising in early British history and mythology, and in particular the legends of Glastonbury where he lives. His numerous works on British and European history and legend include Mythology of the British Isles (0413771997) and Kings and Queens of Early Britain (0413745805) both of which are available from Methuen. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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