ABSTRACT
William Cobbett wrote at a time when long-term economic growth came with job destruction for many ordinary workers, when opportunities for the lower classes lagged dramatically behind opportunities for those able to own financial capital. William Cobbett was not a balanced social analyst. He saw depredations more than positive innovations. The idea in the context of neoliberalism to suggest that there is no alternative to simply adapting to, and trying to thrive on, the basis of a rather fundamentalist notion of markets and globalization. This brings to the forefront Cobbett's image of 'the THING'. The power of financial capitalism has recently become much more visible. Finance is not a world apart; it is closely entwined with political right, state power. Cobbett is hard to place in linear accounts, either of progressive history or of the single dimension allegedly defining political right and Left. Finally, good time to notice this because of the similarities between our era and Cobbett's.
