A Radical Memory: Martyrdom and Commemoration in Nineteenth-Century British Popular Radicalism

Abstract

This thesis investigates the development and establishment of a distinctive commemorative culture by British popular radicalism, and in particular by Chartism, in the nineteenth century. At the intersection of memory studies, the social history of death, and the political and cultural history of radicalism and popular politics in Britain, it analyses the various commemorative practices performed, and memorials produced, by British radicals from the emergence of the radical mass-platform in the post-Napoleonic war period to the turn of the twentieth century. Through the study of the presence of memory and of a rhetoric of martyrdom in the writings, discourses, material culture, and rituals of the radical movement, this work sheds light on the great diversity of memorial practices created and adopted by radical supporters, and on the creativity and resourcefulness they displayed in their memorialisation and commemoration of the radical dead. This thesis notably demonstrates that memory and remembrance were at the core of popular radicalism s politics and culture. The desire to honour the memory of the dead shaped the movement s political struggle for parliamentary reform as well as brought radical supporters and communities together through a shared experience of grief and a determination to show themselves worthy of the martyrs sacrifice and legacy. This thesis, finally, emphasises the extent of British popular radicalism s contribution both to memory politics in nineteenth-century Britain and to the new regime of the dead that emerged in Europe at the same period.