Matthew Roberts BA, PhD, FHEA

I work on British political and social history in the ‘long nineteenth century’ with research specialisms in the history of popular politics and protest, and the visual and material culture of politics.

I remain passionate about nineteenth-century Britain, and believe that we still have much to learn about this fascinating period and that it can tell us a great deal about the nature of contemporary Britain. Whether it’s the Luddites, the Chartists or the evolution of the electoral system, it is important that we as historians continue to research and reflect on these topics and communicate our findings to a wide range of audiences.

My early research examined popular Conservatism and subsequently formed the basis of a larger synoptic work, entitled: Political Movements in Urban England, 1832-1914 (Palgrave, 2009). In the course of writing this book I also became interested in popular radicalism and protest politics, especially Luddism and Chartism, and parliamentary reform. This has crystallised into a developing interest in labour history, and I am currently establishing links with scholars with a view to producing a global/comparative history of machine breaking/resistance to technology. More recently, I have become interested in how perspectives and methodologies drawn from visual and material culture can be used to cast new light on established areas of historical enquiry like parliamentary reform and protest.

Specialist areas of interest

Political and social history of modern Britain; radical politics and protest.

Popular radicalism and protest politics, especially Luddism and Chartism, and parliamentary reform

How perspectives and methodologies drawn from visual and material culture can be used to cast new light on established areas of historical enquiry like parliamentary reform and protest

Department of Humanities

Social Sciences and Humanities

History

BA History

• Humanities Research Centre

A list of publications is available from the institutional repository, SHURA

Political Movements in Urban England, 1832-1914 (Palgrave, 2009).

‘Resisting “Arithmocracy”: Parliament, Community and the Third Reform Act’, Journal of British Studies, 50:2 (2011).

With Gordon Pentland and Mark Nixon, ‘The Material Culture of Scottish Reform Politics, c.1820-c.1884’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 32 (2012).

‘“Villa toryism” and popular Conservatism in Leeds, 1885-1902’, Historical Journal, 49 (2006).

‘Constructing a Tory world-view: popular politics and the Conservative press in late-Victorian Leeds’, Historical Research, 79 (2006).

‘W. L. Jackson, exemplary manliness and late-Victorian popular Conservatism’, in Matthew McCormack (ed.), Public men: political masculinities in Britain, 1700-2000 (Palgrave, 2007).

Co-book reviews editor for Labour History Review