Land, leadership, culture, and emigration: Some problems in Chartist historiography

In 1996 Miles Taylor published an historiographical review of Chartism in w hich he argued that our understanding of the movement has stagnated since t he publication of important research by Gareth Stednam Jones and Dorothy Th ompson in 1983-4. Taylor suggests that the new cultural history of politics (or the 'linguistic turn') is to blame for this 'impasse,' and argues that scholars should consolidate the work of Stedman Jones and Thompson. I argu e that Chartist historians should continue to engage with contemporary appr oaches. The new political history sheds light on some persistent problems o f interpretation which Taylor passes over. It also raises the possibility o f extending the study of Chartism into the colonial realm, an area historia ns have not yet seriously broached. In conclusion, a sketch is given of the significance of Chartist political culture in one episode of protest in th e Australian colony of Victoria in 1853.