The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw the Whigs emerge as a parliamentary grouping determined to limit the power of the monarchy. Later in the eighteenth century, Whigs provided the opposition to government authoritarianism during wartime. They also began to embrace a more popular and radical agenda of religious tolerance and parliamentary reform.
History (13)
Biographies (7)
Journal articles (12)
Events (4)
Archives: individuals (1)
PhD theses (9)
History
A concise history of the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are the successors to two important reformist traditions in British politics - those of liberalism and of social democracy, which became separated from each other in the early p...
Anti-Corn Law League
The second Corn Law of 1828 sparked a wave of radical protest amongst Britains urban classes by introducing a sliding scale of duties on foreign wheat, thus causing bread prices to fluctuate excessiv...
Fox on the French Revolution
Extract from Fox's amendments to the address on the King's speech at the opening of the session (1792). ...
Fox on the suspension of Habeas Corpus
In 1794, Pitt's government professed itself to be seriously worried about the danger of possible revolution in Britain, encouraged by the example of the French Revolution and fanned by the sprea...
Fox to a friend on the French Revolution
Letter from Charles James Fox to his friend, Mr Fitzpatrick, on the French Revolution.
...
Free Trade and the Repeal of the Corn Laws
Belief in free trade became an enduring characteristic of British liberalism in the 19th century but its roots were complex. In part it stemmed from popular Radical hostility to monopoly in all its f...
Impact of the French and American Revolutions
The French Revolution had important consequences for every major country in Europe. What was particularly remarkable about the impact of the French Revolution on Britain was its profound and abiding ...
John Milton on the liberty of unlicensed printing
Extract from Areopagitca; a parliamentary speech by John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing (1644) ...
Macaulay on the role of the Whigs
Extract from a review of Henry Hallam's The constitutional history of England in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 48, September 1828. ...
Nonconformists
The Nonconformists were members of several Protestant groups outside the Church of England. They included in their ranks the Old Dissenters, denominations that went back to the seventeenth century. T...
Popular Radicalism
'Popular radicalism' embraced a range of causes and beliefs in nineteenth-century Britain. For most readers, it relates to agitation outside parliament to secure a democratic franchise on t...
The Liberals and Ireland since 1801
Underneath the surface of this [Irish question], and wrapped up in it, are nearly all the controversies of principle which will agitate the political atmosphere of our time. It is a microcosm of the ...
Great Liberals
John Stuart Mill chosen as greatest British Liberal ...
Biographies
Biography of Charles James Fox
Fox, Charles James
Biography of Earl Grey Charles Grey
Grey, Charles (Earl Grey)
Biography of Jeremy Bentham
Bentham, Jeremy
Biography of Joseph Hume
Hume, Joseph
Biography of Thomas Paine
Paine, Thomas
Biography of David Ricardo
Ricardo, David
Biography of Adam Smith
Smith, Adam
Journal articles
Defender of Liberties - Charles James Fox
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 52 ')
Report of fringe meeting, March 2006, with Professor Frank O'Gorman and Dr Mark Pack
Thomas Paine
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 67 - Special issue: Liberals and the left ')
What was the impact of Thomas Paine on Liberalism and liberal thought?
Man of contradictions
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 58 ')
Review of Arthur H. Cash, John Wilkes, The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty
No one likes us, we don't care
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 59 ')
Review of Leslie Mitchell, The Whig World 1760-1837.
Thomas Paine and the Radical Liberal Tradition
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 68 ')
Report of meeting of 12 July 2010; with Professor Edward Royle and Dr Edward Vallance. Chair: Dr Richard Grayson.
Comprehensive Liberal history
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 73 ')
Review of Robert Ingham and Duncan Brack (eds.), Peace, Reform and Liberation: A History of Liberal Politics in Britain 16792011.
Burke reflected
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 61 ')
Review of Peter J. Stanlis (ed.), Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches
Modernising the state
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 69 ')
Review of Steve Pincus, 1688: The First Modern Revolution.
Vacillating statesman
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 55 ')
Review of Arthur Aspinall, Lord Brougham and the Whig Party
Secular intellectuals
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 73 ')
Review of William C. Lubenow, Liberal Intellectuals and Public Culture in Modern Britain, 1815-1914: Making Words Flesh.
Of pie and politics
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 69 ')
Review of Ophelia Field, The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation.
Archive: Palmerston - Hartley Library
(from journal ' Journal of Liberal History 64 ')
Palmerston's papers at the Hartley Library, University of Southampton
Events
Peace, Reform and Liberation: launch of new Liberal history book
Monday 19 September 2011
Peace, Reform and Liberation is a comprehensive history of Liberal politics in Britain.
...
Thomas Paine and the radical liberal tradition
Monday 12 July 2010
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 ...
Civil liberties in war and peace
Monday 24 January 2005
Law and order has long been a major issue in British politics.
...
Englands Bourgeois Revolution: Past, present, future or never?
Thursday 14 September 1989
In the popular view, the Civil War and Glorious Revolution of the seventeenth century heralded the "bourgeois revolution" of which Thatcherism has now proved the culmination. Political chan...
Archives: individuals
Temple, Henry John (third Viscount Palmerston)
Palmerston's papers at the Hartley Library, University of Southampton ...
archive url: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/
PhD theses
A geographical analysis of the decline of the Liberal Party, 1918-25
Newcastle M.Litt. , 1984
Edmund Burke and the constitutional crisis, 1778-84
Supervisor - Dr. Leslie G. Mitchell
Oxford, D.Phil , 2001
The 'politick personality': Edmund Burke's political ideas and the Lockean inheritance
Supervisor - Professor Fred Rosen
London, Ph.D , 2005
The personal religious life and development of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1832)
Leeds Ph.D. , 1987
The political career of William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd duke of Portland, 1738-1809
Supervisor - Professor Peter D.G. Thomas
Wales (Aberystwyth), Ph.D , 1997
The prince of the Whigs: the life and career of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
Supervisor - Dr. Leslie G. Mitchell
Oxford, D.Phil , 2003
The religious ideas and attitudes of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1859)
Oxford D.Phil. , 1977
The writings and political activities of Slingsby Bethel, 1617-97
Supervisor - Dr. Jonathan H. Scott
Cambridge, M.Litt , 2000
Whig literary culture: poetry, politics and patronage, 1678-1714
Oxford, D.Phil , 2000
