Skip to main content
Home

User menu logged out

  • Subscribe
  • Sign in

History Today September 2025

Subscription
Offers

Give a Gift

Main menu

  • Home
  • The Magazine
  • Subscribe
  • Buy the Current Issue
  • Explore the Digital Archive
  • Institutions
  • Reviews
  • Sign in
Home

Mini header menu

  • Search
  • Magazine
  • Latest
  • Subscribe

Subscribe

History Matters

Power to the People

What’s the point of petitions?

Philip Loft | Published in History Today Volume 69 Issue 5 May 2019

Dustmen, drunkards and washerwomen: ‘Petition Mongers in full Cry to St Stephens!! Beware of Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing’, by Isaac Cruikshank, 1795.

To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.

Start my trial subscription now

If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.

Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.

Popular articles

‘A Bit of War History: The Veteran’, Thomas Waterman Wood, 1866. Metropolitan Museum of Arts. Public Domain.
‘The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America’ review
Acclamation of Dom Pedro I, emperor of Brazil, at the camp of Santa Anna, in Rio de Janeiro, Jean Baptiste Debret, c.1834-49. New York Public Library. Public Domain.
Empire of Exceptions: The Making of Modern Brazil

Recently published

‘A Bit of War History: The Veteran’, Thomas Waterman Wood, 1866. Metropolitan Museum of Arts. Public Domain.
‘The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America’ review
Passers-by looking at a modern sculpture in the window of a Wimpy Bar in London, c.1961. Photograph by John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins. © Estate of John Hopkins.
Wimpy vs McDonald’s: The Battle of the Burgers
Henry Kissinger poses for a portrait in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing at the White House, Washington, DC, 1969. Photo © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Getty Images.
‘Zbig’ by Edward Luce and ‘Henry Kissinger’ by Jérémie Gallon review

Most read

  1. ‘The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America’ review
  2. Wimpy vs McDonald’s: The Battle of the Burgers
  3. Did It Matter That Elizabeth I Was a Woman?
  4. ‘Central Europe’ by Luka Ivan Jukic review
  5. The Lin Biao Incident
X
Get Miscellanies, our free weekly long read, in your inbox every week

Footer menu

  • About
  • Masthead
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Advertising
  • RSS feeds
  • Submit an Article
  • Back Issues
  • Binders
  • Cookie policy
  • Awards
  • Students
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of Use
  • X
  • Instagram
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook

© Copyright 2025 History Today Ltd. Company no. 1556332.