William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 1

The biography follows the subject from a rural Surrey upbringing and hop-country childhood through early military service and emigration to and residence in Philadelphia, then back to Britain where he builds a career as a combative political journalist and pamphleteer. It traces shifting political loyalties and public controversies, including the Porcupine persona and critiques of public fraud, interweaving personal correspondence, contemporaneous reminiscences, and documentary appendices to illuminate character, arguments, and stages of his public life.