Dismembering the body politic
Subtitle: partisan politics in England's towns, 1650-1730
By: Paul D. Halliday.
Series: Cambridge studies in early modern British history
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, U.K; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 393
Subjects: Political culture -- Great Britain -- History.; Municipal corporations -- Great Britain -- History.; Boroughs -- Great Britain -- History.; Central-local government relations -- Great Britain -- History.; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1603-1714.; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1714-1760.
Description: This is a major survey of how towns were governed in late Stuart and early Hanoverian England. A new kind of politics emerged out of England's Civil Wars: partisan politics. This happened first in the corporations governing the towns, and not at Parliament as is usually argued. Based on an examination of the records of scores of corporations, this book explains how war unleashed cycles of purge and counter-purge which continued for decades. It also explains how a society that feared a system of politics based on division found the means to absorb it peacefully.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 362-382) and index.