Government and Community in the English Provinces, 1700-1870

In this bold and original study, David Eastwood offers a reinterpretation of politics and public life in provincial England in the Hanoverian and early Victorian periods. Drawing on his own work and extensive secondary literature, the author explores the ways in which power was exercised in parishes, towns and counties, and reconstructs the social and cultural foundations of political authority in provincial England. In extending our understanding of the nature and decline of English provincialism and of the cultural, social, ideological and economic changes which shaped developments within the English polity, this volume deepens our appreciation of the long-run development of the English state. What emerges is a compelling picture of the intimate connection between public cultures and patterns of political power.