Book excerpt: Whigs and Cities is the first major study of the urban politics of the early Hanoverian era. The book challenges the view that the political nation was of minimal significance, highlighting the critical contribution of the larger towns to the agitations which beset Walpole and swept Pitt topower. At the same time the book is attentive to the different rhythms and trajectories of urban politics and seeks to show, through a study of Bristol, Norwich, and the metropolis, the relative strength of the opposition sentiment and its social configurations, the persistence of local antagonisms,and the interplay of economic interest and political clientage. It ends with a discussion of crowds and political festivals which sheds new light on the grass-roots dynamics of urban political culture.