Joseph Cozens
I am a social and political historian with an interest in popular unrest and its suppression by the state in Britain and the British world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I have published research on the Peterloo Massacre (1819), desertion and deserters from the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, and on radicalism in eighteenth-century London. My first monograph project explores the long-term militarisation of tax enforcement and riot-control in England and Wales from the Riot Act (1714/5) to the Reform Act (1832). My work leverages records from the National Archive’s collections to explore the role of the British Army and the Royal Navy in the suppression of smuggling gangs and street protests (e.g. food riots, trade union unrest, and political meetings). I argue that there was a profound militarisation of tax enforcement and public order ‘policing’ in the era before the introduction of the New Police (1829 onwards).
I am currently (2024- ) a Nineteenth Century Social and Political Records Researcher at The National Archives, Kew, London. Prior to this, I took my PhD at the University of Essex (2012-6, supervised by Professor Peter Gurney), and wrote my thesis on civil-military relations in Britain during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. I was subsequently appointed as a Lecturer at University College London (2018-2024), where I designed and delivered three new undergraduate modules on the themes of (i) Crime and Punishment in London, 1750-1868; (ii) Protest and Policing in modern Britain; and (iii) Documenting Poverty in Britain, 1800-1950.
I am currently (2024- ) a Nineteenth Century Social and Political Records Researcher at The National Archives, Kew, London. Prior to this, I took my PhD at the University of Essex (2012-6, supervised by Professor Peter Gurney), and wrote my thesis on civil-military relations in Britain during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. I was subsequently appointed as a Lecturer at University College London (2018-2024), where I designed and delivered three new undergraduate modules on the themes of (i) Crime and Punishment in London, 1750-1868; (ii) Protest and Policing in modern Britain; and (iii) Documenting Poverty in Britain, 1800-1950.
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Papers by Joseph Cozens
This book chapter examines the memory of the Peterloo Massacre from 1819 to the present. It identifies a 'martyrology' and a 'demonology' which nineteenth-century radicals constructed as a way of explaining and commemorating the Manchester massacre. However, Cozens also demonstrates that this radical-liberal reading of Peterloo was fiercely contested by conservatives over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Why is it important?
This new research, based on archival and newspaper sources, demonstrates the highly contested nature of the memory of the Peterloo Massacre. It therefore sets the nineteenth- and twentieth-century commemorations of Peterloo within a broader historical context. Official attempts at commemoration have historically been abortive, muted, or inadequate. This work is all the more significant, given the approaching bicentenary of Peterloo in 2019, and the renewed efforts in Manchester to provide a suitable official commemoration for the 'martyrs' of St Peter's Fields.
Book Reviews by Joseph Cozens
Conference Organization by Joseph Cozens
A keynote address was given by Jon Lawrence (Cambridge) on the 'lost voices of the English working class' based on his recent research into the languages of class and individualsm in the North Eastern shipyards (1947-1970).
In addition, the conference attracted a variety of fascinating papers, from the Early Modern period to the twentieth century, exploring the continuing importance of class to our understanding of collective memory, political allegiances and of historical change.
This book chapter examines the memory of the Peterloo Massacre from 1819 to the present. It identifies a 'martyrology' and a 'demonology' which nineteenth-century radicals constructed as a way of explaining and commemorating the Manchester massacre. However, Cozens also demonstrates that this radical-liberal reading of Peterloo was fiercely contested by conservatives over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Why is it important?
This new research, based on archival and newspaper sources, demonstrates the highly contested nature of the memory of the Peterloo Massacre. It therefore sets the nineteenth- and twentieth-century commemorations of Peterloo within a broader historical context. Official attempts at commemoration have historically been abortive, muted, or inadequate. This work is all the more significant, given the approaching bicentenary of Peterloo in 2019, and the renewed efforts in Manchester to provide a suitable official commemoration for the 'martyrs' of St Peter's Fields.
A keynote address was given by Jon Lawrence (Cambridge) on the 'lost voices of the English working class' based on his recent research into the languages of class and individualsm in the North Eastern shipyards (1947-1970).
In addition, the conference attracted a variety of fascinating papers, from the Early Modern period to the twentieth century, exploring the continuing importance of class to our understanding of collective memory, political allegiances and of historical change.