1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820326303321

Autore

Cash Arthur H (Arthur Hill), <1922->

Titolo

John Wilkes : the scandalous father of civil liberty / / Arthur H. Cash

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2006

ISBN

1-281-73129-3

9786611731298

0-300-13309-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (496 p.)

Disciplina

941.07/3/092

B

Soggetti

Freedom of the press - Great Britain - History - 18th century

Civil rights - Great Britain - History - 18th century

Politicians - Great Britain

Journalists - Great Britain

Great Britain Politics and government 1760-1789

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 451-463) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The making of a gentleman -- The squire of Aylesbury -- Into Parliament -- The North Briton -- Number 45 -- The Great George Street printing shop -- Trials and a trial of honor -- Exile -- The Middlesex election controversy -- Incapacitation -- The City of London -- My lord mayor -- Poverty, paternity, and parliamentary reform -- Chamberlain.

Sommario/riassunto

One of the most colorful figures in English political history, John Wilkes (1726-97) is remembered as the father of the British free press, defender of civil and political liberties, and hero to American colonists, who attended closely to his outspoken endorsements of liberty. Wilkes's political career was rancorous, involving duels, imprisonments in the Tower of London, and the Massacre of St. George's Fields in which seven of his supporters were shot to death by government troops. He was equally famous for his "private" life-a confessed libertine, a member of the notorious Hellfire Club, and the author of what has been called the dirtiest poem in the English language.This



lively biography draws a full portrait of John Wilkes from his childhood days through his heyday as a journalist and agitator, his defiance of government prosecutions for libel and obscenity, his fight against exclusion from Parliament, and his service as lord mayor of London on the eve of the American Revolution. Told here with the force and immediacy of a firsthand newspaper account, Wilkes's own remarkable story is inseparable from the larger story of modern civil liberties and how they came to fruition.