The Dignity of Chartism

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 ground-breaking research uncovering the role played by women in the movement.

Throughout her essays, Thompson strikes a delicate balance between down-to-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Of particular historical and political significance is the previously unpublished substantial essay co-authored by Dorothy and Edward Thompson, a superb piece of local historical research by two social historians then on the brink of notable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, and author of The Chartists, Outsiders: Class, Gender and Nation and Queen Victoria. 

Stephen Roberts is an 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.