Language, Print and Electoral Politics, 1790-1832: Newcastle-under-Lyme Broadsides.(Book Review)

ed. Hannah Barker and David Vincent (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, for the Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust, 2001; pp. xlvi+337. 45 [pounds sterling])

This lavishly produced volume, the second in an occasional series of parliamentary records, is an edition of nearly 350 broadsides, or single printed sheets, which survive for a dozen contested parliamentary elections in Newcastle-under-Lyme between 1790 and 1832. To illustrate the variety of fonts and the different lay-outs, forty-seven of the broadsides are reproduced in facsimile. This very lively period in local politics saw the end of the control of the parliamentary representation of the borough by the Leveson …