SHAKESPEARE AND RADICALISM: THE USES AND ABUSES OF SHAKESPEARE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY POPULAR POLITICS

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONY TAYLOR
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Reform Movements

This article seeks to locate William Shakespeare in the traditions of nineteenth-century popular politics in Britain. The bards of radicalism are usually seen as the romantic poets, particularly Byron and Shelley. Nevertheless, Shakespeare's national standing, the lack of hard details about his life, and the subversive messages many radicals believed to have discovered in his plays allowed reformers to project him as a ‘son of the soil’, and to contest appropriations of him by the aristocratic patrons of events like the Shakespeare Tercentenary of 1864. Through the agitation surrounding this celebration, a link into a radical bardolatry is established that indicates the centrality of memories of Shakespeare's England to the popular platform. The article concludes with a consideration of the light shed by ‘Shakespearean radicalism’ on current debates about continuity between Chartism and liberalism in popular politics, and the role of memory and memorialization in the political culture of nineteenth-century plebeian reform movements.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 550-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assef Ashraf
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political History ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Center Periphery

AbstractThis article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.

The People

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The People ◽  
Chinese Political Culture

This chapter explores the reasons for the recurrence of large-scale popular uprisings throughout imperial history. It considers how the idea of rebellion correlates with fundamental principles of Chinese political culture, such as monarchism and intellectual elitism. Moreover, the chapter looks at why the rebellions serve to support rather than disrupt the empire's longevity. These issues are then related to the broader issue of the political role of the “people,” here referring primarily, although not exclusively, to the lower strata, in the Chinese imperial enterprise. In answering these questions, this chapter focuses on ideological and social factors that both legitimated rebellions and also enabled their accommodation within the imperial enterprise.

John Robert Seeley and the Political Theology of Empire

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Famous Book ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter focuses on John Robert Seeley (1834–95), the most prominent imperial thinker in late nineteenth-century Britain. It dissects Seeley's understanding of theology and religion, probes his views on the sacred character of nationality, and shows how he attempted to reconcile particularism and universalism in a so-called “cosmopolitan nationalist” vision. It argues that Seeley's most famous book, The Expansion of England (1883) should be understood as an expression of his basic political-theological commitments. The chapter also makes the case that he conceived of Greater Britain as a global federal nation-state, modeled on the United States. It concludes by discussing the role of India and Ireland in his polychronic, stratified conception of world order.

Cuban Revolutionary Politics in Diaspora

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia Antonia Muller
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
National Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
Independence Movement ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
Revolutionary Party ◽  
And Gender

This chapter tells the story of two key and connected institutions of the Cuban Independence movement outside of Cuba: the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC) and the National Association of Cuban Revolutionary Émigrés (ANERC). These institutions and their records have much to teach us about the political culture of Cubans in exile during the second half of the nineteenth century. More specifically, the chapter explores the tension between inclusion and exclusion that marked both institutions during the 1890s and the first few decades of the twentieth century, with a special emphasis on race, class and gender.

Popular Imperialism, Democracy, Conservatism and Socialism, 1850–1900

2019 ◽  
pp. 172-202
Author(s):  
Nick Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Active Part ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Officer Corps ◽  
Post Discharge ◽  
Mass Democracy ◽  
First Time

This chapter reviews the political sympathies of soldiers – both officers and rank and file - in the age of high Victorian imperialism and emerging British democracy. It examines the role of the army in growing working class support for popular imperialism, often fuelled by racism. Whilst it acknowledges the overall tendency for officers to support Conservatism, it uncovers tenacious support for Liberalism on the part of some of the officer corps. This extended to many of the rank and file in the post-Chartist period, with post discharge soldiers actively supporting all types of reform movements and taking an active part in the mass democracy brought about by the 1867 and 1884 Reform Acts. With the development of socialism from the 1880s this even extended to a significant number of ‘soldier socialists’, surveyed here for the first time.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE PROFESSIONAL ADMINISTRATOR’S STATUS IN MEDIEVAL RUSSIA ON AN EXAMPLE OF THE BOYAR DUMA

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-9
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Status ◽  
Historical Practice

The article is about the evolution of the status of the Boyar Duma in Russia during the six centuries from X to XV. The role of boyars in the political life of the country has changed with the development of the role of the Prince´s administration and overcoming feudal disunity. Boyars´ management in real historical practice was ineffective. But this fact has become an important factor in the formation of national political culture.

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