Autobiography of a Working Man

iv, 511 pp. 12-page terminal publisher ad. 8vo. A classic in radical working-class literature, and important as a firsthand account of social turmoil in England during the early 19th century. The author, Alexander Somerville, published the work pseudonymously. He was the son of a carter whose impoverished upbringing led him to join the Scots Greys in 1832, but defied authority when he was stationed in Birmingham to police the Reform agitation. Another infraction later the same year led to his court martial and public flogging, though he gained some celebrity from the case. He later served in the British Legion in Spain, and returned to England in 1837, where he quickly became a critic of political violence and the 'physical-force' tendency led by Fergus O'Connor. He published Dissuasive Warnings to the People on Street Warfare, and wrote for the Morning Chronicle and Manchester Examiner. While 'The Autobiography of a Working Man' was originally written only to be read by his son, but when revolutions began in 1848 it became clear its publication would be educational to the general public. It would later be quoted by Friedrich Engels in his The Condition of the Working Class in England.