The Politics of Sedition in Long Nineteenth-Century Britain

The Politics of Sedition in Long Nineteenth-Century Britain: Gender, Activism, Spatial Politics and Legality examines the political confrontation between the British state and the emerging working class, a struggle that manifested in collective activism and was met with severe state repression, from imprisonment to loss of life.

This interdisciplinary collection explores sedition through themes of political activism, emotions, gender, communication, space, and legality, drawing on methodologies from history, literature, law, and archaeology. Contributors grapple with the ill-defined legal concept of sedition, which blurred the boundaries between blasphemy, treason, and insurgency, leaving activists unable to operate within the law.

Examining actions once deemed seditious but which ultimately advanced participatory democracy, the collection also reflects on the contemporary relevance of sedition in twenty-first-century confrontations between state power and popular resistance.