The Scum Of The Earth follows common soldiers - those whom Wellington
angrily condemned as 'scum' for their looting at Vitoria - from victory
at Waterloo to a Regency Britain at war with itself: James Graham, an
Irishman hailed as the bravest man in the British army for his actions
in closing the north gate at Hougoumont, forced to plead for charity on
his return to Britain; John Lees, a spinner from Oldham who met his end
at Peterloo in 1819 - sabred by the same cavalry with which he had
served his country; and countless others.Colin Brown skilfully
dismantles the myth that the defeat of Napoleon ended the threat of
revolution spreading from France. Wellington's 'scum' may have won peace
in Europe for fifty years, but at home, repression and revolution were
in the air, and by 1848 the whole of Europe was once more set for
complete upheaval. The picture that emerges is a verydifferent one from
the traditional view of elegant Regency Britain.