Chartism

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The Chartist movement continues to occupy a central place in the history and historiography of modern Britain. As the first mass working-class movement for democracy in Britain, Chartism remains a controversial episode for historians trying to understand and explain it. Was it a movement with revolutionary aims and violent strategies and tactics? How socially inclusive were the Chartists? Was the movement little more than irrational hunger politics, whipped up by unprincipled upper-class demagogues? In what ways did Chartism fail, and why? This essay begins by providing an overview of the movement, including definitions and the key debates among historians, before moving on to focus on the cultural dimensions of Chartism by looking at what it meant to be a Chartist. It will also explore the movement within the context of nineteenth century Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and the wider world – the far-flung corners of which many Chartists found themselves banished as transported prisoners and immigrants. The essay concludes by examining some of the ways in which Chartism failed, and the reasons for this, as well as pointing to some of the successes achieved by the movement.