Chartism, parliament and the public - Professor Malcolm Chase
Professor of Social History, Malcolm Chase, has been working closely with parliament over the past few years to improve the understanding of Chartism
Chartism (1838-58) was a parliamentary reform movement and effectively Britain’s civil rights movement , it dominated early Victorian politics.Because of the importance of Chartism in the history of political reform and of petitioning parliament, Professor Chase has worked quite extensively with Parliament. He has given a lecture on Chartism, at the invitation of Parliament's Cross-party Group on History & Archives and has contributed to many broadcasts on aspects of Chartism and other radical movements such as British Socialism, The Grand Tour on BBC Radio 4 and ITV's series "Britain's Secret Housing". He has also written a number of books on the subject most recently, The Chartists: Perspectives and Legacies in 2015.
Professor Chase has been widely recognised for developing public awareness of the political, social and international dimensions of the movement and its centrality to the fight for democracy. His work has also had significant impacts in Australia, promoting an informed understanding of the black Chartist William Cuffay, and on the family history community.
He recently wrote an article for the government's petition select committee which was published as part of their "Petition of the Month feature on their website about an 1842 petition (3.3 million signatures) which campaigned for John Frost, William Jones and Zephaniah Williams, who had led a Chartist uprising in south Wales the previous November, to be pardoned, rather than transported for life to Australia. It was the the largest-ever petition presented to parliament in the pre-digital era.
