William Cobbett

Cobbett is best known today as the author of Rural Rides, but in his lifetime, he was an enormously productive political and economic journalist and writer of books in many fields, and he is important to students in a number of disciplines, ranging from literature, through politics and economics, to social and political history. Originally published in 1973 this book presents an account of Cobbett's life and works, placing him in a wide cultural context and setting him above all in a literary tradition. The author investigates the sources, literary, social and political, for that complex of 'country' attitudes and the myth of a rural 'Merry England' which so dominated Cobbett's writings. Due regard is paid to Cobbett's historical significance as a political agitator, but the main emphasis is upon his literary qualities.