Brave community
The Digger Movement in the English Revolution
By John Gurney
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- Format: Hardcover
- ISBN: 978-0-7190-6102-8
- Pages: 256
- Price: £85.00
- Published Date: April 2007
- Series: Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain
Description
This is the first full-length, modern study of the Diggers or 'True Levellers', who were among the most remarkable of the radical groups to emerge during the English Revolution of 1640-60. It was in April 1649 that the Diggers, inspired by the teachings and writings of Gerrard Winstanley, began their occupation of waste land at St George's Hill in Surrey and called on all poor people to join them or follow their example. Acting at a time of unparalleled political change and heightened millenarian expectation, the Diggers believed that the establishment of an egalitarian, property-less society was imminent.
The book establishes the local origins of the Digger movement, and sets out to examine pre-civil war social relations and social tensions in the parish of Cobham - from where significant numbers of the Diggers came - and the impact of civil war in the local community. It provides a detailed account of the Surrey Digger settlements and of local reactions to the Diggers, and it explores the spread of Digger activities beyond Surrey. In chapters on the writings and career of Gerrard Winstanley, it seeks to offer a reinterpretation of one of the major thinkers of the English Revolution.
This book should be of interest to all those interested in England's mid-seventeenth-century revolution and in the history of radical movements.
Reviews
This work attempts to place the Diggers in context on a number of different levels: locally, nationally, politically, and intellectually. The aim is to improve our comprehension of the Diggers in their time and place without having Winstanley dominate the account; this is a laudable change of focus, as a prolific radical theorist can skew the analysis.
Contents
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1: Parish, community and social relations in Cobham
Family, occupation and social structure
Manor and parish
Population
Population pressures
Landlords and tenants
Chapter 2: The parish of Cobham and the Civil War
The coming of war
Rural popular protest
The impact of war
The costs of war
Social conflict
The manor of Cobham during the Civil War
Chapter 3: Gerrard Winstanley
Family background
Marriage
Winstanley's bankruptcy
The move to Cobham
Surrey politics
Chapter 4: Winstanley: the early writings
Influences
Towards the restoration of community
Context
Chapter 5: The Diggers on St George's Hill
The first phase
Identifying the Diggers
St George's Hill
Chapter 6: The Diggers and the local community
Reactions to the Diggers in Walton
The Diggers in Cobham
The end of the Digger colony
Chapter 7: Aftermath
Author
John Gurney is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University