The late 1810s saw waves of political radicalism. Reformers protested and petitioned
for voting rights and parliamentary reform, whilst some extremists sought
insurrection and revolution. Within mass platform meetings, societies, and
movements, material culture and space were important mechanisms in expressing,
signalling, and constructing radical identities. This thesis studies these identities
through their material and spatial outputs through utilising thematic analysis and
exploring several key events: important mass platform meetings, female reform
societies, the imprisonments of Henry Hunt and Samuel Bamford, and the Cato
Street Conspiracy execution. It argues that radicalism associated itself with open,
public, and urban space, however, 1820 saw the contraction of space to the scaffold
and prison cell. Material culture was instrumental in making and infusing spaces and
landscapes with radicalism through its emblematic and totemic qualities.
As well as examining radicalism, the thesis contributes to archaeology more
generally. Its methodological approach promotes the study of events, demonstrating
how the archaeological analysis of the short-term is possible and illuminating.
Through using thematic analysis, the thesis adopts an interdisciplinary stance,
utilising material culture, documents, and visual sources. As a subdiscipline, it is in its
early stages yet there is great potential to examine historical movements, events,
and moments that can help us understand inequalities and protest in contemporary
experiences. This is the driving force of the thesis: to tell radical stories that resonate
with today.
