The Peterloo Massacre

Reid, Robert William2018

Book

Total copies: 3

Summary

This revealing and compelling account of one of the darkest days in Britain's social history presents a seminal episode in the battle for civil rights and fair labour relations, originally published in 1989 and made available for a new generation of readers in this paperback edition as the discourse behind that day in 1819 in some ways goes on. 'The universal significance of this historic event becomes ever more relevant in our own turbulent times.' Mike Leigh 'One of our nation's defining moments.' Stuart MaconieThe Peterloo Massacre is a revealing and compelling account of that event, one of the darkest days in Britain's social history. On 16 August 1819, a strong force of yeomanry and regular cavalry charged into a crowd of more than 100,000 workers who had gathered on St Peter's Field in Manchester for a meeting about Parliamentary reform. This violent, startling event became known as Peterloo, one of the darkest days in Britain's social history.The Peterloo Massacre provides a revealing narrative account of the events leading up to Peterloo, starkly describes the actions of that fateful day, and examines its aftermath. It offers a new perspective on the political and military activities of the time, and shows how the very nature of society was powerfully influenced by irreversible technological change: a pattern that, two-hundred years later, still has relevance in understanding the forces shaping our world today.