The People’s Farm

Description

This book traces the development of agrarian ideas from the 1770s through

to Chartism, and seeks to explain why, in an era of industrialization and

urban growth, land remained one of the major issues in popular politics.

Malcolm Chase considers the relationship between ''land consciousness'' and

early socialism; attempts to create alternative communities; and

contemporary perceptions of nature and the environment. He concludes that,

far from being an anachronistic, utopian, and reactionary movement,

agrarianism was an integral part of the working class experience and of

radical politics. The People''s Farm also provides the most extensive study

to date of Thomas Spence, and his followers the Spenceans. New light is

thrown on the Spa Fields and Cato Street conspiracies, in which they were

involved; but their true significance lies in their contribution to English

radicalism – a key factor in shaping the politics of agrarian reform in the

1820s and 1840s.