Public Life and the Propertied Englishman 1689-1798: The Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford 1990

The common view of eighteenth-century politics is one of aristocratic dominance coexisting with plebeian vitality. Langford explores the terrain which lay between the high ground of elite rule and the low ground of popular politics, offering a major reassessment of the place of the propertied class. This is a major reassessment of the place of propertied people in eighteenth-century England. Paul Langford explores the terrain which lay between the high ground of elite rule and the low ground of popular politics, revealing the vigorous activity and institutional creativity which prevailed in it. A major reassessment of the place of the propertied class in 18th-century England, revealing a society in which the middle class increasingly enforced its social priorities, vested interests, and ideological preoccupations. The book should be of interest to students of politics and society.