Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Rebellion in Eighteenth Century Britain

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What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can –
if you know where to look.

Historian Madeleine Pelling introduces a brilliant new cultural history of the long eighteenth century, telling its history through the marks citizens left behind, bringing lost voices into focus.From the centre of London to the islands of the Caribbean, graffiti provides evidence of how ordinary people experienced the world, from political prisoners to sex workers, homesick sailors, Romantic poets and the artisans of the industrial revolution. Here are lives, loves, triumphs and failures, scratched into the walls of prisons and latrines, chalked up on doors and etched into windows. The names of their creators may be lost to history, but together, these marks tell the real story of Britain's most rebellious and transformative century.Madeleine Pelling is a cultural historian, author and broadcaster. She holds a PhD from the University of York and has held research fellowships at the universities of Yale, Edinburgh, Manchester. Madeleine is co-host of History Hit's After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal podcast.

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Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Rebellion in Eighteenth Century Britain

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