"This is Very Material": William Cobbett and the Rhetoric of Radical Opposition

Abstract

William Cobbett's Cottage Economy (published serially in 1821- 1822, and then in book form in 1822) was a handbook of domestic and agricultural techniques meant to shield the rural household from encroaching commerce and industry by providing the means of an independent subsistence. In an Eighth Number (added to the second edition of 1824), "Selecting, Cutting and Bleaching the Plants of English Grass and Grain, for the purpose of making Hats and Bonnets," Cobbett promoted his scheme for a cottage industry that would employ women and children at home.

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