Family & Community Historical Research Society

Swing Unmasked About the Book

"Swing Unmasked" a 312 page book about the Captain Swing Riots (1830-1832) contains new evidence about the extent of the riots and the people who were involved.

Grounded upon a focused study that examined the three year period of social unrest amongst ordinary men and women in the pre-trade union countryside of England and Wales Swing Unmasked identifies significantly more information about occurrences of prosecuted "swing-riot" offences. The result of the research has been the discovery that a much larger geographical area was effected with many more (67%) outbreaks of violence than earlier researchers had concluded.

In British history, this period of "Swing Riot" was in fact the last mass rising of agricultural workers protesting against their pay and conditions.

In addition to nine original essays on the Swing Riots, the book offers new work on the transportation of prisoners and also, as a bonus, fresh material on the cholera riots of the the time.

Appendices include lists of offenders and victims.

FACHRS new publication "Swing Unmasked" has been described by Professor Michael Drake as a major research achievement in publishing since the thirty-year old research of  Hobsbawm and Rudé’s  (Captain Swing, Hobsbawm, E. J. and Rude, George,  1975, Norton and Company, Inc., 384 pp. New York).