The Letters of Richard Cobden (1804-1865) online

Howe, Anthony, Morgan, Simon and Dampier, Helen (2023) The Letters of Richard Cobden (1804-1865) online. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The Letters of Richard Cobden Online Richard Cobden (1804-1865) was one of the most influential British politicians of the 19th century. Although he never held government office, Cobden’s ideas about free trade being the basis for prosperity for all and peaceful relations between nations became popular orthodoxy in Britain for over eighty-five years, from the repeal of the Corn Law in 1846 to the return to protectionism in 1932. They also exercised great influence across Europe, the Americas and the wider world. Photographic portrait of Richard Cobden This website includes: A fully searchable database of over 5,000 transcripts of the letters of this important Victorian statesman Free and downloadable teaching resources based on the letters, compatible with Key Stage 3 History and Citizenship curricula in England & Wales. Examples of student work from our pilot schools Explanatory essays covering different aspects of Cobden’s life and campaigns A ‘virtual exhibition’ of scanned manuscript material from more than half of the nearly 150 archives and private collections worldwide that hold Cobden letters. Throughout his campaigns, Cobden used his personal correspondence as a key method of organising, persuading and sharing his own knowledge and experience, while also eliciting new information to help inform his speeches and pamphlets. His letters also give an insight into his private life, and the stresses and strains of agitation. The Letters of Richard Cobden (1804-1865) Online provides free access to digital transcripts of Cobden’s letters collected by the Letters of Richard Cobden Project, first established in 2002. These are letters not previously published in the project’s four-volume hard-copy edition by Oxford University Press (see below for full details). We are confident that the letters will be an enormous boon to nineteenth-century scholarship, as well as providing valuable lessons in active citizenship past, present and future for school children and anyone with a general interest in the period. The project has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of a wider impact and engagement project themed around ‘active citizenship’. Other activities included an exhibition hosted by Archives+ at Manchester Central Library from April-June 2023; a ‘collection encounter’ at the John Rylands University Library, Manchester; a series of workshops with Key-Stage 3 pupils at schools in Leeds, Bradford and Rochdale which included leadership coaching by the GreenWing Project; and a schools essays prize organised in conjunction with the History of Parliament Trust. The site is a work in progress, and we intend to continue adding to the available resources.

Item Type:	Other
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Modern British History Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Global & Transnational History
Related URLs:	https://www.cobdenletters.org/
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	13 Mar 2025 14:30
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2025 14:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98742
DOI:

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