Further research
Online resources for Chartist history
Taking your Chartist research elsewhere on the web

ON THIS PAGE
Full text books
Contemporary books on Chartism
Chartist autobiographies
Later histories and biographies

Useful websites
Chartist websites
Labour history websites
General History websites

CONTEMPORARY BOOKS ON CHARTISM
The Way to Universal Suffrage, by Tyne Chartist (1839)

Annual Register 1839 (1840)

The Trial of John Frost for High Treason (1840)

The Trial of Feargus O'Connor, Esq, Barrister at Law, and Fifty-Eight Others at Lancaster on a Charge of Sedition, Conspiracy, Tumult and Riot (1843

A Practical Work on the Management of Small Farms, by Feargus O'Connor (1843)

The people's charter; with the address to the Radical reformers of Great Britain and Ireland, and a brief sketch of its origin (1848)

Breach of Privilege: Being the Evidence of Mr John Bull taken before the Secret Committee on the National Distress in 1847 and 1848, by Thomas Clutton Salt (1849)

Sketches of Reforms and Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland by Henry Brewster Stanton, (1850)

The Purgatory of Suicides, by Thomas Cooper (1850)

The History of the Last Trial by Jury for Atheism in England, by George Jacob Holyoake (1850)

The English Republic, by William James Linton (1851)

History of the Anti-Corn Law League, by Archibald Prentice (1853)

The Battle Day and Other Poems, by Ernest Jones (1855)

An Argument for Complete Suffrage, by W E Adams (1860)

A lecture on democracy vindicated, by Ernest Jones (1867)

CHARTIST AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
The autobiography of a Working Man, by Alexander Somerville (1848)

The Autobiography of one of the Chartist Rebels of 1848, by John James Bezer (1851)

The Life of Thomas Cooper: Written by Himself, by Thomas Cooper (1872)

Who were the Chartists? By W J Linton (1881-82)

Sixty years of an Agitator's Life, by George Jacob Holyoake (1892)

Passages in the Life of a Radical and Early Days, by Samuel Bamford (1893)

Memoirs of a Social Atom, by W E Adams (1903)

Bygones Worth Remembering, by George Jacob Holyoake (1905)

LATER HISTORIES AND BIOGRAPHIES
Life and Letters of George Jacob Holyoake (vol 1), by Joseph McCabe (1908)

Life and Letters of George Jacob Holyoake (vol 2), by Joseph McCabe (1908)

Chartism and the Churches: A Study in Democracy, by Harold Underwood Faulkner (1916)

The Chartist Movement in its Social and Economic Aspects, by Frank Rosenblatt (1916)

The Decline of the Chartist Movement, by Preston W Slosson (1916)

A History of the Chartist Movement, by Julius West (1918)

Life Stories of Famous Men: George Jacob Holyoake, by Joseph McCabe (1922)

USEFUL WEBSITES
CHARTIST WEBSITES
Northern Star online
A project to digitise the whole of the Northern Star and place it on the web is under way. It is being run by a consortium of Birkbeck College, King's College London, the British Library and Olive Software Inc. Have a look at the December 2006 newsletter for a fascinating story about advertising in the Chartist press.

Chartism and the Chartists
Stephen Roberts, who put this site together, has been researching and writing about Chartism for twenty five years. He has edited or contributed to numerous influential books on the movement, and is currently working on a biography of the Christian Chartist, Arthur O'Neill.

National Archives
The National Archives local history section includes a page on Chartism. And there is more in the Learning Curve educational section. Chartist Ancestors has a guide to the National Archives collection of material on Chartism and there is a research guide on making the most of your visit to an archive or local records office on Mytimemachine.

Victorian Web
This general history website for the era has introductory material on Chartism.

Minor Victorian Poets and Writers
Despite its unassuming name, this site has an enormous amount of interesting Chartist material. It includes works by and about Gerald Massey, Ernest Jones, Thomas Cooper and William James Linton - among others. All played an important part in the Chartist movement.

Centre for the Study of Chartism
Home to the Centre for the Study of Chartism at Staffordshire University, which houses the collected papers of the eminent Chartist historian Dorothy Thompson.

John Leech's Chartist sketches
From the launch of Punch in 1841 until his death in 1864, John Leech produced thousands of drawings, more than 600 of which can now be seen online at the John Leech Archive. This will take you to the index listing cartoons and sketches dealing with Chartism.

History Zone
Historian and teacher Richard Brown is using a blog format to add biographies of leading figures associated with the Chartists and to publish a series of articles on the approaches historians have taken to Chartism over the past century or more.
See all entries on Chartism
Chartist lives
Peter McDouall
Gerald Massey
Bronterre O'Brien
Feargus O'Connor
Arthur O'Neill
Robert Philp
Thomas Phillips
Francis Place - part 1
Francis Place - part 2
W P Roberts
Benjamin Rushton
Joseph Rayner Stephens
Joseph Sturge
John Taylor
Henry Vincent
Arthur Wade
Benjamin Wilson
Zephaniah Williams
More...

How historians have interpreted Chartism
Chartism - A Question of Interpretation - part 1

Chartism - A Question of Interpretation - part 2
The growth of labour history, 1880-1940

Chartism - A Question of Interpretation - part 3
Biographies and local studies, 1940-80

Chartism - A Question of Interpretation - part 4
Class, politics and language

Chartism - A Question of Interpretation - part 5
A "linguistic turn": considering Steadman Jones

Chartism - A Question of Interpretation - part 6
Turn and turn again

Annotated bibliography of Chartism
Ursula Stange is an academic at Nipissing University in Canada. She has compiled a useful bibliography of Chartist literature.

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
Not primarily a website about Chartism, but thanks to Ben Beck for letting us know about this site, on which can be found the biography of his great, great uncle, George Binns, and quite a few others with connections to Chartism (search on the terms Chartist and Chartism for the list).

LABOUR AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Trade Union Ancestors - Trade union family trees and histories, an A to Z of 5,000 British trade unions, and guides to further research.

Working Class Movement Library - Excellent library based in Salford.

Modern Records Centre - Warwick University's collection of trade union archival material and family history guide.

Tribune History - Strike of the month, "old statesmen/women" and more from Tribune Magazine.

Labour Heritage - Organisation promoting the history of the Labour Party

International Institute of Social History

Olden Times - extracts from old newspapers

The union makes us strong - a history of trade unions

Society for the Study of Labour History

Victoria Research Web

GENERAL HISTORY WEBSITES
Local History Online
Books, news, resources, information, courses and local history contacts. Also a calendar of events and local history books for sale.

History Today The leading UK-based history magazine online.

mytimemachine.co.uk Links to specialist and local records offices, history blogs, timelines and full-text history source material.