Representation and Misrepresentation in Later Stuart Britain

In this original and illuminating study, Mark Knights reveals how the political culture of the eighteenth century grew out of earlier trends and innovations. Arguing that the period 1675-1720 needs to be seen as the second stage of a seventeenth-century revolution that ran on until c.1720, the book traces the development of the public as an arbiter of politics, the growth of a national political culture, the shift towards a representative society, a crisis of public discourse and credibility, and a political enlightenment rooted in local and national partisan conflict.

Representation and the Public
1.: Introduction
2.: Public Politics
3.: Petitions and Addresses
4.: Informing Public Judgement at the Polls
Public Discourse and Truth
5.: The Evolution of Print Culture and the Libels of Public Discourse
6.: Truth and Fiction in Age of Party
7.: Consequences
Bibliography