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Dark Days of Georgian Britain: Rethinking the Regency
In Dark Days of Georgian Britain, James Hobson challenges the long established view of high society during the Regency, and instead details an account of a society in change. Often upheld as a period of elegance with many achievements in the fine arts and architecture, the Regency era also encompassed a time of great social, political and economic upheaval. In this insightful social history the emphasis is on the life of the every-man, on the lives of the poor and the challenges they faced. Using a wide range of sources, Hobson shares the stories of real people. He explores corruption in government and elections; "bread or blood" rioting, the political discontent felt and the revolutionaries involved. He explores attitudes to adultery and marriage, and the moral panic about homosexuality. Grave robbery is exposed, along with the sharp pinch of food scarcity, prison and punishment. It is not a gentle portrayal akin to Jane Austen's England, this is a society where the popular hatred of the Prince Regent was widespread and where laws and new capitalist attitudes oppressed the poor. With Hobson's illustrative account, it is time to rethink the Regency.
227 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 2017
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December 8, 2022For anyone surfeited by balls, riding in Hyde Park, visits to the modiste, discussions of reticules and the order of precedence at dinner.
This is the underside of all the clichés perpetrated by Regency HRs. The author looks in depth at the cost of living, the implications of the Corn Laws, what it meant to criticise the Government, the injustices of justice and a dozen other inconvenient truths of the Regency. It's a well-researched book, quoting widely from newspapers, law reports etc of the day (though there are fewer citations than a purely academic text might offer).
Hobson is a fluent author, and an engaging one (he writes a blog here). He's also driven by a very persuasive anger about the subject matter, which translates into energetic writing: this is not a dry text.
If I have a criticism of this well-intentioned and instructive book, it's that it does read like a collection of blogs: there's a certain amount of repetition between chapters, for instance. And Hobson's outrage at the injustices he writes about sometimes suggests a slightly one-sided argument.
Overall, however, this is a really valuable challenge to the fluffy one-dimensional view of the Regency. Any HR author should be aware of the appalling human cost that lay behind each debonair duke's fortune.
This is the underside of all the clichés perpetrated by Regency HRs. The author looks in depth at the cost of living, the implications of the Corn Laws, what it meant to criticise the Government, the injustices of justice and a dozen other inconvenient truths of the Regency. It's a well-researched book, quoting widely from newspapers, law reports etc of the day (though there are fewer citations than a purely academic text might offer).
Hobson is a fluent author, and an engaging one (he writes a blog here). He's also driven by a very persuasive anger about the subject matter, which translates into energetic writing: this is not a dry text.
If I have a criticism of this well-intentioned and instructive book, it's that it does read like a collection of blogs: there's a certain amount of repetition between chapters, for instance. And Hobson's outrage at the injustices he writes about sometimes suggests a slightly one-sided argument.
Overall, however, this is a really valuable challenge to the fluffy one-dimensional view of the Regency. Any HR author should be aware of the appalling human cost that lay behind each debonair duke's fortune.
February 21, 2018
Oh how I wish James Hobson had been my school history teacher. I loved history, naturally, and indeed my history teachers but still, if I had had Mr Hobson to take me through what it meant to live during the Regency the whole era would have been so much more vivid and my O-level so much more of a pleasure. As it was, I duly learned about the Congress of Vienna but never really understood what the end of the Napoleonic Wars really did to British politics.
James Hobson, a fellow Pen & Sword writer and indeed a history teacher for 25 years, writes the excellent About 1816 blog and is on twitter as @about1816. Our interests, in bringing forth the forgotten voices of late Georgian Britain, overlap a great deal, and I certainly learned a great deal from the insights this book offers, which is presented in an accessible style full of information about real lives. It's an excellent read, apart from anything else.
What Hobson does is look at the lives of the poor and relates it back to the actions and attitudes of the rich and the effect of political events. It is a welcome antidote from the standard branding of early 19th century as somehow mostly peopled by lovely ladies in gorgeous frocks and handsome men in military garb. In general, the privileged do not come out well: selfish, bullying, snobbish. So what's new?, I hear you say, and indeed many have compared the dynamics of our 21st-century political landscape to those of the Georgian era. Hobson does this himself with both grace and great force.
Every chapter gave me new perspective on familiar issues and fascinating, and often appalling, stories to go with them. I was particularly impressed by the chapters on currency, child labour, the Irish in Britain and suicide. Other topics covered include attitudes to the Prince Regent, the Peterloo Massacre, Arthur Thistlewood, the Cato Street conspirator, bodysnatching – and much more besides.
There is a bias towards the stories of male people, and I would have liked to have seen a chapter on prostitution, for example, in the mix, but otherwise, in all respects this is excellent, lively history, written with both passion and compassion.
Highly recommended.
James Hobson, a fellow Pen & Sword writer and indeed a history teacher for 25 years, writes the excellent About 1816 blog and is on twitter as @about1816. Our interests, in bringing forth the forgotten voices of late Georgian Britain, overlap a great deal, and I certainly learned a great deal from the insights this book offers, which is presented in an accessible style full of information about real lives. It's an excellent read, apart from anything else.
What Hobson does is look at the lives of the poor and relates it back to the actions and attitudes of the rich and the effect of political events. It is a welcome antidote from the standard branding of early 19th century as somehow mostly peopled by lovely ladies in gorgeous frocks and handsome men in military garb. In general, the privileged do not come out well: selfish, bullying, snobbish. So what's new?, I hear you say, and indeed many have compared the dynamics of our 21st-century political landscape to those of the Georgian era. Hobson does this himself with both grace and great force.
Every chapter gave me new perspective on familiar issues and fascinating, and often appalling, stories to go with them. I was particularly impressed by the chapters on currency, child labour, the Irish in Britain and suicide. Other topics covered include attitudes to the Prince Regent, the Peterloo Massacre, Arthur Thistlewood, the Cato Street conspirator, bodysnatching – and much more besides.
There is a bias towards the stories of male people, and I would have liked to have seen a chapter on prostitution, for example, in the mix, but otherwise, in all respects this is excellent, lively history, written with both passion and compassion.
Highly recommended.
February 10, 2018
During the first quarter of the 19th century the poor in Britain faced an almost perfect storm of rising prices, falling wages and increasing unemployment. There were a number of reasons; enclosure forced many off the land and into urban slums. Without their cottage gardens they were entirely reliant on bought food at a time when a series of bad harvests, caused by unseasonably cold weather, caused prices to increase. The Corn Laws of 1815 made matters worse by making imported grain prohibitively expensive and keeping domestic prices high. The industrial revolution, gaining pace at this time, brought economic benefits to the already rich but condemned the poor to appalling working conditions and rates of pay that only just reached subsistence level. Nor did the defeat of Napoleon help; returning soldiers in search of jobs only served to force wages further down. Government represented and served the rich and powerful and had no interest in improving the conditions of the disenfranchised poor. Not only that, but any attempt by the poor to protest their situation was viciously put down, so determined were the rich to maintain their privileges.
James Hobson’s book examines all these areas but not in a dry, academic way; he writes about real people, giving us their names and revealing the realities of their domestic and working lives. This is proper history, well researched and thorough and all the more impressive because the lives of the illiterate poor are so difficult to investigate at an individual level.
The Peterloo Massacre is obviously a key event and covered in detail but Hobson also investigates numerous other attempts at protest, be it against working conditions, food prices and hunger, or the lack of political rights. He shows how the authorities used agents to provoke and identify individuals and he explains that while prison was an option for those convicted, the authorities disliked the expense involved in providing even the most basic conditions, preferring public execution or transportation to Botany Bay instead. This savagery applied to petty criminals as well; Hobson gives us numerous examples of individuals given horrific sentences for the most innocuous of offences. He writes of one aged man facing trial for stealing a cucumber.
London had a particular problem, the need to provide corpses for the teaching hospitals. Even in this respect the poor were targeted. Those better off could pay for strong coffins or for protection of the interred body until it had decayed sufficiently to be of no medical use; the bereaved London poor lived in fear of the gangs of body snatchers.
Suicide was a crime in Regency Britain. Poor people, no longer able to tolerate the awfulness of their existence were hastily buried at night, without ceremony, religious or otherwise, at roadside intersections. Viscount Castlereagh, one of the most hated and despised men in Britain, also committed suicide but he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Hobson writes about all these things but shows his special respect for the many individuals who challenged this status quo, not just the famous people such as Henry Hunt of Peterloo fame, but also the common, working people who risked everything and suffered the consequences, to become involved. It is in this that the author issues a challenge to those of us who are concerned about the injustices of today; is it really enough just to sign internet petitions?
Dark Days of Georgian Britain by James Hobson is an excellent book. Easy to read and packed with detail, it should appeal to a wide audience. I thoroughly recommend it.
James Hobson’s book examines all these areas but not in a dry, academic way; he writes about real people, giving us their names and revealing the realities of their domestic and working lives. This is proper history, well researched and thorough and all the more impressive because the lives of the illiterate poor are so difficult to investigate at an individual level.
The Peterloo Massacre is obviously a key event and covered in detail but Hobson also investigates numerous other attempts at protest, be it against working conditions, food prices and hunger, or the lack of political rights. He shows how the authorities used agents to provoke and identify individuals and he explains that while prison was an option for those convicted, the authorities disliked the expense involved in providing even the most basic conditions, preferring public execution or transportation to Botany Bay instead. This savagery applied to petty criminals as well; Hobson gives us numerous examples of individuals given horrific sentences for the most innocuous of offences. He writes of one aged man facing trial for stealing a cucumber.
London had a particular problem, the need to provide corpses for the teaching hospitals. Even in this respect the poor were targeted. Those better off could pay for strong coffins or for protection of the interred body until it had decayed sufficiently to be of no medical use; the bereaved London poor lived in fear of the gangs of body snatchers.
Suicide was a crime in Regency Britain. Poor people, no longer able to tolerate the awfulness of their existence were hastily buried at night, without ceremony, religious or otherwise, at roadside intersections. Viscount Castlereagh, one of the most hated and despised men in Britain, also committed suicide but he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Hobson writes about all these things but shows his special respect for the many individuals who challenged this status quo, not just the famous people such as Henry Hunt of Peterloo fame, but also the common, working people who risked everything and suffered the consequences, to become involved. It is in this that the author issues a challenge to those of us who are concerned about the injustices of today; is it really enough just to sign internet petitions?
Dark Days of Georgian Britain by James Hobson is an excellent book. Easy to read and packed with detail, it should appeal to a wide audience. I thoroughly recommend it.
January 2, 2019
Despite awarding 5 stars (I will explain why later), I do have some criticisms of this book. Firstly, Hobson is a very partisan writer and whilst I don’t disagree with his observations on the establishment’s shocking treatment of the poor, I would prefer to make my own judgements. Secondly, the book is really quite haphazard with no clear linking theme.
That being said, Hobson is an entertaining, if perhaps slightly eccentric, guide to the regency period. From Peterloo to grave robbing, from suicide to the dreadful experiences of the Irish he hops around in an interesting, if rather superficial, way. A good light read, written by a real enthusiast who I suspect enjoyed writing this book even more than I did reading it and I really did enjoy it.
That being said, Hobson is an entertaining, if perhaps slightly eccentric, guide to the regency period. From Peterloo to grave robbing, from suicide to the dreadful experiences of the Irish he hops around in an interesting, if rather superficial, way. A good light read, written by a real enthusiast who I suspect enjoyed writing this book even more than I did reading it and I really did enjoy it.
January 14, 2026
Finished this a day or two ago. Very easy read built on the very reasonable argument that 1816 was one of the worst years in English history. Based on the use newspapers and radical press articles it looks at the disaster the regency period was for the common folk of England in particular. Author has a website where they seemed to have blogged a lot of the material they use in the book. Excellent read overall.
July 25, 2019
Really good, bracing corrective to the generally-idealized romance novels I consume by the bucketful. Back in Ye Olden Days Of Childhood I read a book with the only-slightly witty title The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible! That could just as easily have been this book's title: it's essentially a chronicle of the lives and suffering of the regency-era poor. Regardless of the depressing subject matter, Hobson has a nice light touch; he's not dwelling on all the awful things that happened to poor people, just outlining them, and his attention to the various rebellions and dissidents of the era gives a less depressing feel to those sections of the book. Basically, this was really easy to read, very informative, occasionally quite witty, and never felt mean-spirited or unjustly angry (anger at the prince regent and various jackasses who lived in the regency era is totally just).
September 10, 2018
I will write a review of this outstanding book when I have a spare five minutes. I'll just say now that I recommend it to everyone to dispel the myth of the UK of the Regency being in any way, a romantic or a fine place.
It is too easy for the none-too-historically inclined reader to be mislead by the elegant works of Jane Austen (of whom I am a great fan) into believing that. Suffering, repression, dirt and death were the order of the day fo the great majority of the population. For women, things were so much worse; of course, even upper class women had no separate legal identity after marriage, and the danger of death in childbirth was ever present.
It is too easy for the none-too-historically inclined reader to be mislead by the elegant works of Jane Austen (of whom I am a great fan) into believing that. Suffering, repression, dirt and death were the order of the day fo the great majority of the population. For women, things were so much worse; of course, even upper class women had no separate legal identity after marriage, and the danger of death in childbirth was ever present.
July 18, 2018
History bookshelves groan under the weight of books devoted to kings and queens, famous generals and well known figures. Rarely do ordinary people get a look in, and it is even rarer to find a book devoted to their struggles. This is particularly true of the Regency, a period in English history where, if one was to focus on the output of television drama departments, everyone lived in a country house.
So it is with pleasure that I review James Hobson's Dark Days of Georgian Britain. Hobson begins with two quotes to illustrate his central thesis, one from Jane Austen's Emma where the titular character is described as living twenty-one years "with very little to distress" her. The other from Karl Marx noting that "the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle". It's an excellent juxtaposition, for the book deals with, both the actuality of those class struggles and the society that bred them.
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.com/20...
So it is with pleasure that I review James Hobson's Dark Days of Georgian Britain. Hobson begins with two quotes to illustrate his central thesis, one from Jane Austen's Emma where the titular character is described as living twenty-one years "with very little to distress" her. The other from Karl Marx noting that "the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle". It's an excellent juxtaposition, for the book deals with, both the actuality of those class struggles and the society that bred them.
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.com/20...
November 26, 2025
an engrossing contrast to the pretty pictures of period Regency dramas
Others may not agree, but I found this fascinating. Couldn’t stop reading. I was quite disappointed when it stopped. I was ready for at least as much more as I had read, but I fear I am quite the glutton for history. This is a side of things we do NOT see in the literature of the period; I’m sure there would have been little market for it. We have obviously progressed but little in morals and attitudes in 200 years. The parallels are easy to see. If you are a fan of Regency literature, you owe it to yourself to read this book and others detailing the lives and cultural mores of the common people of Regency England.
Others may not agree, but I found this fascinating. Couldn’t stop reading. I was quite disappointed when it stopped. I was ready for at least as much more as I had read, but I fear I am quite the glutton for history. This is a side of things we do NOT see in the literature of the period; I’m sure there would have been little market for it. We have obviously progressed but little in morals and attitudes in 200 years. The parallels are easy to see. If you are a fan of Regency literature, you owe it to yourself to read this book and others detailing the lives and cultural mores of the common people of Regency England.
September 11, 2018
I highly recommend this book for those wanting a different perspective of the Regency period. It deals with the 'voiceless' - not the spoilt Princes, arrogant aristocratic landowners or wealthy industrialists but with the ordinary man and woman who toiled in the mills and fields, portraying their struggle for political and social rights. It doesn't gloss over the period as if it was one big costume ball with glittering chandeliers. No, it deals with the reality of the vast majority of the population, when for most life really was nasty, brutish, and short. It is fascinating.
November 16, 2021
Just the way I like it: short and sweet, this book covers some of the most horrible aspects of the Regency. Just what is needed to grab the attention of someone who is just starting on the period and wants to go beyond Jane Austen and Bridgerton. Still, it could do with a thorough edit - my copy was full of grammatical and spelling errors, even in names, and some factual mistakes too, when it came to names, for example (made me wonder if I'd missed more of them). Still, a decent book, even if the list of sources is woefully short.
June 8, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well written book. I have little in-depth knowledge of British history although I am interested in our past. This book was written in a style which kept me interested and I was fascinated by the content. I was particularly interested in the description of the Merthyr riots.
I would recommend this book to those who would like to know more about our political history.
I would recommend this book to those who would like to know more about our political history.
September 26, 2020
Scattered reminiscing
A meandering and non analytic account of a 10 year period 1810- 20 that is more a collection of anecdotes and inconsequential events with little structure. The idea is apparently to concentrate on the poverty of the poor but it ends up as a semi sensational wandering with an emphasis on shocking stories of criminals and the punishments they underwent. The lack of structure makes this a dull even boring account.
A meandering and non analytic account of a 10 year period 1810- 20 that is more a collection of anecdotes and inconsequential events with little structure. The idea is apparently to concentrate on the poverty of the poor but it ends up as a semi sensational wandering with an emphasis on shocking stories of criminals and the punishments they underwent. The lack of structure makes this a dull even boring account.
March 17, 2024
This is a harrowing retelling of history. Like many lovers of romance novels, I've lost track of how many Regency era stories I've read. I knew Prinny was bad, but I now have the facts and figures of how his overwhelming selfishness directly effected his subjects. Monarchies and aristocracy can make for wonderful fiction but in real life, they seem exceedingly unfair. But who am I except just another foolish American. Of Irish descent, even.
February 21, 2025
Such a fascinating period and great to see it contained within the pages of a well written book
July 31, 2025
A good read highlighting the plight of ordinary people rather than focusing on the drawings rooms of the rich.
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