Franca Dellarosa, Talking Revolution: Edward Rushton's Rebellious Poetics, 1782–1814

The article presents the monograph published by Franca Della Rosa on the little-known figure of Edward Rushton, poet, working-class activist, bookseller and poet active in London and Liverpool at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, also known for being the founder of the first School for the Blind in Britain in 1991. The article gives a summary of Rushton’s life and work, as they emerge from Della Rosa’s volume and then evaluates Della Rosa’s work in terms of its contribution to Romantic studies and to the historiography of the ‘labouring class’ in Britain in this period. In particular, the review highlights the way that Della Rosa’s work successfully locates Rushton and his poetry within the concrete context of the radical controversies in which he was involved, in particular slavery and the slave trade, the city of Liverpool and its development in this period, and the Irish rebellion of 1798. The review argues for the importance of this work not only to literary studies of Romanticism but also within the historiographical context of ‘Atlantic History’ and gender studies.