John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty [Hardcover]

Arthur Cash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2006

One of the most colorful figures in English political history, John Wilkes (1726–97) is remembered as the father of the British free press, defender of civil and political liberties, and hero to American colonists, who attended closely to his outspoken endorsements of liberty. Wilkes’s political career was rancorous, involving duels, imprisonments in the Tower of London, and the Massacre of St. George’s Fields in which seven of his supporters were shot to death by government troops. He was equally famous for his “private” life—a confessed libertine, a member of the notorious Hellfire Club, and the author of what has been called the dirtiest poem in the English language.

This lively biography draws a full portrait of John Wilkes from his childhood days through his heyday as a journalist and agitator, his defiance of government prosecutions for libel and obscenity, his fight against exclusion from Parliament, and his service as lord mayor of London on the eve of the American Revolution. Told here with the force and immediacy of a firsthand newspaper account, Wilkes’s own remarkable story is inseparable from the larger story of modern civil liberties and how they came to fruition.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Wilkes is known to political historians as a radical bad boy of eighteenth-century Britain, and to literary historians for a cameo appearance in Boswell's life of Johnson. (Tricked into dining with the radical Wilkes, the arch-Tory Johnson found common ground in good food, Latin verse, and jokes about the Scots.) But Cash makes a persuasive case for Wilkes as central to Enlightenment England—and, indeed, to the American Revolution, whose ideas he helped inspire. Famous for his loose living, he turns out to be not the demagogic opportunist of the reactionary imagination but a philosophical democrat with articulate convictions about free speech and political equality. In the process of establishing Wilkes as genuinely heroic, Cash suggests new ways of thinking about the strange relationship between the practice of eighteenth-century libertinism and the birth of modern liberty.
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From Booklist

The toast of American revolutionaries, John Wilkes (1726-97) has been described by historian Gordon Wood as "one of the most colorful demagogues in English history." Author Cash is less backhanded in his admiration for a radical associated with a free press, universal manhood suffrage, and fair elections. His comprehensive biography is loaded with incident and quotation that Wilkes provoked over his lengthy presence on the British political stage. As Cash chronicles, Wilkes' notoriety developed slowly: he entered the House of Commons as a supporter of William Pitt, and when Pitt went into opposition in 1762, Wilkes backed him. King George III countered by prosecuting Wilkes for seditious libel, and the rest is quite colorful history. Not only are trials, prison, exile, and political comeback on offer; Cash also details Wilkes' reputation as a libertine who dumped his wife, kept courtesans, composed bawdy screeds, and stiffed his creditors. Cash almost converses with his reader while restoring interest and controversy to this relatively obscure but significant figure in the expansion of liberty. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First edition (February 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300108710
• ISBN-13: 978-0300108712
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,595,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Product of the 60's!, March 27, 2006

By 

Monty Rainey (New Braunfels, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty (Hardcover)

John Wilkes could be considered a "flower-child of the 60's". The 1760's, that is. As I read this magnificent telling of JOHN WILKES: THE SCANDELOUS FATHER OF CIVIL LIBERTY by Arthur Cash, I couldn't help but wonder how this free spirit would be accepted today. I was reminded of countless modern day examples of people who resemble this man they probably never heard of. Cash captures the essence of his subject in an erudite fashion seldom found.

We Americans owe a great deal to Wilkes, and yet, he ranks but a footnote in the pages of our history. Wilkes encompassed the American spirit of independence and if known today, would be a folk hero of the highest regard. Perhaps Cash's work can help put the name of John Wilkes in its rightful place.

John Wilkes had to compensate for his less than dashing looks, and he did so quite well with his wit. He was cross-eyed and had a most prominent jaw, almost to the point of deformity. By the time he was forty, he had lost his teeth and spoke with a very heavy lisp. His wit can be illustrated by his comment to Lord Sandwich who told Wilkes he would either die of the pox or at the gallows. Wilkes retorted, "That depends, my Lord, on whether I embrace your wife, or your principles."

Wilkes pushed the bounds of the "free press" with his publication, the North Briton, which at one point, won him a week in the tower. In the end, however, Wilkes' incessant attack on pushing the boundaries of the free press would eventually make his name synonymous with liberty.

We picture those stuffy men of the late 18th century sitting in Parliament with their starched collars, their powdered wigs, and their staunch expressions and I'm sure many of them fit that very description. But this parliamentarian, writer, freedom fighter and part time pornographer will shock readers with just how "anti-establishment" he was, and for the most part, got away with.

Arthur Cash has composed a delightful, though lengthy read about someone we all should get to know a little better.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wilkes and Liberty!, February 8, 2006

By 

Christian Schlect (Yakima, Washington/USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty (Hardcover)

A superior biography of an Englishman who had a great impact on the advancement of liberty, both at home and, by example, in the colonies that were to become the United States.

Today's readers will find this life of John Wilkes deserving of attention for a multitude of reasons. Professor Cash gives clear background on many of the political and judicial terms of that age, many of which are still in use today. The evil that was embedded in general warrants, the beginnings to a right of privacy, freedom of the press, and the start towards universal suffrage are all part of this story. As well as the private worldly pleasures of an unorthodox gentleman who never met a debt or woman he could refuse.

One of the best books, if not the best, I have read this past year. If you are a fan of James Boswell or Voltaire I wager that you will enjoy this worthy effort by the accomplished author Arthur H. Cash.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars John Wilkes, Civil Libertarian and Libertine, December 4, 2006

By 

David Montgomery (Beaufort, North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty (Hardcover)

The name of John Wilkes has come up in several books I've read and in a few classes I've taken, but I never really learned all that much about him. Arthur Cash has written a good biography of this eighteenth century Englishman who gained fame for pointing out and fighting the abuses perpetrated by his own government, namely the Parliament and the King's ministers (Wilkes rarely blamed King George III personally). Specifically, Wilkes fought his government when it came to issues like the general search warrant, freedom of press and privacy, and the right of the people, not parliament, to choose its representatives in the House of Commons. Indeed, all this makes Wilkes out to be a champion of civil liberty as well as for the rights of commoners, which in many ways he was, but he also remained loyal to the crown and acted against rioters and mob action, at least that which threatened to turn into lawlessness. It's also worth mentioning that our country learned from some of the causes Wilkes fought for.

In addition to Wilkes's causes and actions taken in the public sphere, we get to see the John Wilkes who enjoyed the intimate company of many women, producing one legitimate daughter (Polly) and a few illegitimate children along the way, enjoyed a good bawdy joke or just making fun of a political figure, spending himself into deeper and deeper debt and so on. Wilkes was not a one-dimensional man by any means. It seemed to come across in this book that John Wilkes tried to make the most out of life, though I think he enjoyed certain things a little too much. He did not seem to sink into complete despair or unhappiness; his contemporaries made note of this upbeat side of his personality. But his activities without question made him a controversial person.

He published criticisms of the government that led to his being declared an outlaw, resulted in a few duels, forced him into exile, was imprisoned and even then was being elected to serve in the House of Commons, but was denied a seat until he finally did win the right to represent the constituents who had elected him to serve. He served in other positions as well, including as Alderman, Lord Mayor of London and Chamberlain (like a treasurer for the city of London). Throughout his ordeals, his reputation and popularity only grew, much to the chagrin of those in government who had been subjected to his wit and criticisms. Wilkes also spoke out in the House of Commons as a supporter for universal suffrage for men, almost unheard of at that time.

In addition to these sides to Wilkes's public roles and his personal life, which I've only so briefly touched on, we become acquainted with many of his friends and associates as well as his enemies, his close and loving relationship with his daughter Polly, though he also seemed kind and loving towards his illegitimate children. Indeed, Cash makes it a point to reveal that Wilkes was often a very courteous, loyal and true gentleman, though this isn't always the case. He was full of life. These are some of the impressions I came away with from reading this book. There were still certain episodes I would have liked to have known a little more about, namely his public service roles and more about his accomplishments and or failures, a more in-depth view of his take on the American Revolution and its conclusion among other things. In the afterword, Cash mentioned that his take on Wilkes is different from that of many other historians; I would have liked the author to have developed that point more. I guess that's what reading other sources are for. Needless to say, this was a good biography on a very colorful individual.