Jacobitism, or support for the exiled Stuarts after the revolution of 1688, has become a topic of great interest in recent years. Historians have debated its influence on Parliamentary politics, but none has yet attempted to explore its broader implications in English society. This study offers a wide-ranging analysis of every aspect of Jacobite activity, from pamphlets and newspapers to songs, cartoons, riots, seditious words, clubs, and armed insurrection. It argues that Jacobitism was not confined to a tiny group of fanatical reactionaries, and that it had a profound impact on various aspects of English life including political thought, literature, popular culture, religion, and elite sociability. It contributed a great deal both to the emergence of conservative attitudes in eighteenth-century England and to the development of a radical critique of Whig government. This paradoxical legacy makes Jacobitism a subject of considerable significance in English political, social, and cultural history.
Industry Reviews
'In a brilliant book, covering much entirely new ground, Paul Monod surveys the importance of Jacobitism in English society from newspapers, poetry, songs, prints, medals, clubs, riots, seditious words cases and rebellion, all reflecting different types of commitment. On the one hand Jacobitism reflected a yearning for the values of the Restoration of 1660 and divine hereditary right as a guarantee of social order and stability and, on the other, it provided a radical critique of Whig government ... English society was pluralistic, not monolithic, and Monod's book is essential to an understanding of it.' Eveline Cruickshanks, Institute of Historical Research 'It is a subject that has cried out for a chronicler. Paul Kleber Monod has accepted the challenge with a success that will reward all who study the era.' Reed S. Browning, American Historical Review 'Monod must have our gratitude for putting eighteenth-century Jacobitism in an intelligible and acceptable perspective.' Brain W. Hill, English Historical Review