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Ray Hemmings
Liberty
or Death chronicles
the dramas of the struggle for parliamentary reform in the latter half of
the eighteenth century. It focuses on the lives of two very different political
reformers, and through them highlights the contrasting attitudes to reform
in the different layers of society.
Thomas Hardy a Scottish shoemaker in 1792 founded the London Corresponding Society, the first political organisation for working men. In contrast, John Cartwright, a member of the landed gentry, drew support for his Society for Constitutional Information from the educated middle classes and the aristocracy.
Although the two men met only once, their stories are interlinked through their support for a widening of voting rights, and the opposition they encountered.
Campaigning as they were against the tumultuous political and social background of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, their views were regarded as dangerously subversive. In 1794 charges of treason were brought against both societies and Hemmings documents the proceedings of these trials, including that of Hardy himself.
Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources, Hemmings brings to lightthe actions and attitudes of eighteenth century political reformers, giving us an absorbing narrativeof a radical period of British history.
"An excellent introduction to the England of 'old corruption' as well as the ideas and men that would overthrow it'
John Callaghan,
Professor of Politics at the University of Wolverhampton
"I thought it very well done. The account of Thomas Hardy's trial is the best I have ever read."
John Saville,
Professor Emeritus in Economic History at the University of Hull
Ray Hemmings was Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Education at Leicester University until 1982. Upon retiring he has devoted himself to his long-standing interest in history, and now writes full time. His other publications include a biography of A.S. Neill, Fifty Years of Freedom (Allen & Unwin 1972)