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 Arts

History

BA History

• Humanities Research Centre

Journal articles

Roberts, M. (2021). Tory-Radical Feeling in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, and Early Victorian England. Victorian Studies, 63 (1).

Roberts, M. (2021). Women and Late Chartism: Women's Rights in Mid-Victorian England. The English Historical Review.

Roberts, M. (2019). Politics, Performance and Popular Culture: Theatre and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain. PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, 38 (2), 299-301. http://doi.org/10.1111/1750-0206.12422

Roberts, M. (2018). Richard Oastler, Toryism, Radicalism and the limitations of Party, c.1807-1846. Parliamentary History, 37 (2), 250-273. http://doi.org/10.1111/1750-0206.12364

Roberts, M. (2018). Daniel O'Connell, repeal and Chartism in the age of Atlantic revolutions. The Journal of Modern History, 90 (1), 1-39. http://doi.org/10.1086/695882

Roberts, M. (2017). Rural Luddism and the makeshift economy of the Nottinghamshire Framework Knitters. Social History, 42 (3), 365-398. http://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2017.1327644

Roberts, M. (2015). Archive Report: Labouring in the Un-digitized Chartist Archive. Labour history review, 80 (2), 195-200. http://doi.org/10.3828/lhr.2015.8

Roberts, M. (2013). Chartism, Commemoration and the Cult of the Radical Hero c.1770-c.1840. Labour history review, 78 (1), 3-32. http://doi.org/10.3828/lhr.2013.2

Roberts, M. (2013). Election Cartoons and Political Communication in Victorian England. Cultural and Social History, 10 (3), 369-395. http://doi.org/10.2752/147800413X13661166397229

Nixon, M., Pentland, G., & Roberts, M. (2012). The material culture of Scottish reform politics, c.1820-c.1884. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 32 (1), 28-49. http://doi.org/10.3366/jshs.2012.0034

Roberts, M. (2011). Resisting “Arithmocracy”: Parliament, community, and the Third Reform Act. Journal of British Studies, 50 (2), 381-409. http://doi.org/10.1086/658188

Book chapters

Roberts, M. (2021). Catholicism and Constitutionalism in William Cobbett’s English and Irish Medievalism. In Subaltern Medievalisms Medievalism and the Working Classes in Nineteenth-Century Britain. D.S. Brewer: https://boydellandbrewer.com/subaltern-medievalisms.html

Roberts, M. (2015). '"The Feast of the Gridiron is at hand" : Chartism, Cobbett and Currency'. In Grande, J., & Stevenson, J. (Eds.) William Cobbett, Romanticism and the Enlightenment : Contexts and Legacies. (pp. 107-121). London: Pickering and Chatto

Roberts, M. (2013). 'A terrific outburst of political meteorology’: by-elections and the Unionist electoral ascendancy in late-Victorian England. In Otte, T.G., & Readman, P. (Eds.) By-elections in British politics, 1832-1914. (pp. 177-200). Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer

Books

Roberts, M. (2019). Chartism, Commemoration and the Cult of the Radical Hero. Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Chartism-Commemoration-and-the-Cult-of-the-Radical-Hero/Roberts/p/book/9780367187583

Theses / Dissertations

Stanley, J.W. (2020). The Yorkshire miners 1786-1839: a study of work, culture and protest. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Roberts, M. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00324

Co-book reviews editor for Labour History Review