Liberty and Liberticide

The Role of America in Nineteenth-Century British Radicalism

Michael J. Turner

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780739178188
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

America was important to many British radicals. It was a model, an exemplar, a source of inspiration, and American events were believed to have a bearing on reform debates in Britain. Many scholars focus on the positive impressions of the United States that prominent British radicals entertained, developed, and propagated, but it is necessary also to explore the reasons why some radicals condemned rather than praised America, and to explain how America was conceptualized and used by them, and to what purpose.

Liberty and Liberticide focuses on the influence America exerted over the ideas and activities of nineteenth-century British radicals. While some looked on America as the model of liberty, others associated it with the destruction of liberty. Turner shows how radicals' views about the United States and the course of Anglo-American relations shaped their domestic reform agenda and their assumptions about British political values and Britain's place in the world.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Politics and Rhetoric of Admiration
• Eulogies with Reservations
• The Growth of Anti-Americanism
• American Crisis: Part One
• American Crisis: Part Two
• After the Civil War
• Late Nineteenth-Century Political and Economic Contexts
• Conclusion
• Index
• About the Author