In the eyes of Britain's heritage industry, London is the traditional
home of empire, monarchy and power, an urban wonderland for the
privileged, where the vast majority of Londoners feature only to applaud
in the background.
Yet, for nearly 2000 years, the city has been a breeding ground for
radical ideas, home to thinkers, heretics and rebels from John Wycliffe
to Karl Marx. It has been the site of sometimes violent clashes that
changed the course of history: the Levellers' doomed struggle for
liberty in the aftermath of the Civil War; the silk weavers, match girls
and dockers who crusaded for workers' rights; and the Battle of Cable
Street, where East Enders took on Oswald Mosley's Black Shirts.
A People's History of London journeys to a city of pamphleteers,
agitators, exiles and revolutionaries, where millions of people have
struggled in obscurity to secure a better future.