1688-1830
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Secular intellectuals
Review of William C. Lubenow, Liberal Intellectuals and Public Culture in Modern Britain, 1815-1914: Making Words Flesh (Boydell Press, 2010).
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Defender of Liberties: Charles James Fox
2006 saw the bicentary of the death of the Whig leader Charles James Fox. A proponent of the supremacy of Parliament, the freedom of the press and the rights and civil liberties of the people, and a believer in reform, rationalism and progress, rather than repression, the ideas he defended particularly over the challenge of…
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Thomas Paine and the radical liberal tradition
To coincide with the publication of the special issue of the Journal of Liberal History on Liberalism and the Left (summer 2010), we are delighted to welcome Prof Edward Royle and Dr Edward Vallance to the History Group for an evening focusing on the life, works and influence of Thomas Paine. In the two centuries…
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The Year of the Fox
2006 sees the bicentenary of the death of the Whig leader Charles James Fox. This article looks at how Fox is commemorated in stone.
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Charles James Fox, 1749-1806
[…]His first years as an MP were marked by a conservative, even reactionary, attitude. […. What] marked his shift to support the Whigs and reform of the system of government were, first, the Royal Marriage Bill, and then the American War of Independence. […] When the Royal Marriage Bill attempted to restrict, at George III’s…
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Jeremy Bentham, 1745-1832
[…]Bentham’s enduring legacy is a complex one. On the one hand, he is associated with utilitarian projects for social reform which suggested an activist conception of the state and which attracted charges of collectivism. On the other, his constitutional theory, with its suspicion of big government and its democratic commitment to accountability and openness, suggests…
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Joseph Hume, 1777-1855
Joseph Hume was a Scottish radical who devoted his political career to championing the principles of retrenchment. He was born near Montrose, Forfarshire in January 1777, the first son of James Hume. Hume’s father, master of a small fishing ship, died when he was nine and the family was forced to fall back on the…
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Thomas Paine, 1737-1809
Thomas Paine was born on 29 January 1737 at Thetford in Norfolk and was educated at the local grammar school. His father was a stay-maker, and this was Paine’s first occupation. In 1759, he married Mary Lambert, the daughter of a customs officer, but she died within a few months. This may have determined him…