Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788

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.