Contested Commons

A dynamic history of political organizing for the preservation of public spaces in England.

A radical history of England, Contested Commons is a gripping overview of increasingly restrictive policing and legislation against protest in public spaces. It tells the long history of contests over Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Cable Street, and Kinder Scout, as well as sites in towns and rural areas across the country. Navickas reveals how protesters claimed these spaces as their own commons, resisting their continuing enclosure and exclusion by social and political elites. She investigates famous and less well-known demonstrations and protest marches, from early democracy, trade union movements, and the Suffragettes to anti-fascist, Black rights, and environmental campaigners in more recent times. Contested Commons offers positive as well as troubling lessons on how we protect the right to protest.

Katrina Navickas is professor of history at the University of Hertfordshire. Her books include Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848.