Peter Gurney's Wanting and Having expands his work on the history of popular politics and the concept of consumption. In this new book he explores the period leading up to the subject of his previous monograph, Co-operative Culture and the Politics of Consumption in England, 1870–1930. Gurney does not limit his new study, however, to a discussion of cooperation; instead, he casts his net fairly broadly, demonstrating that consumption is a concept permeating the political discourse of both radical and liberal politics.

As Gurney explains in the preface, the book is organized as “a group of studies … rather than a consecutive narrative” (xiii). Accordingly, he does not attempt to give a chronological history of consumerism. Instead, Gurney selects various points at which political conflict, economic downturn, or ideological clash highlight a developing notion of the individual as consumer. Each chapter addresses one of these points, while ranging chronologically and thematically as needed to develop the topic. This type of organization is both a strength and a liability. It allows Gurney to explore the implications of each topic he covers with a great amount of subtlety and detail. At the same time, the study can appear disjointed at first glance, as it moves backward and forward in time, from political discourse to fiction, from historical event to ideological conflict. The book is best approached as a series of essays rather than a linear historical narrative.

Gurney's point of departure is the general strike of 1842. He uses the topic to discuss the rhetoric of hunger adopted, ironically, by ostensible antagonists—the Anti-Corn Law League and the Chartists. Both of these groups utilized narratives and images of meager food, starvation, and even cannibalism. The league attempted to depict the hungry working man as a consumer who would benefit from the free circulation of commodities, while Chartists insisted on the powerlessness of the poor worker to have adequate access to physical sustenance. Gurney continues this discussion of hunger and consumption in chapter 3, which addresses the New Poor Laws and the resulting workhouse dietaries. These efforts, Gurney posits, were predicated not only on regulating labor but also on disciplining consumption.

Gurney then turns to a discussion of democracy, arguing that we can infer from Chartist discourse a vision of democracy foregrounding individual choice and control, including control over market relations and consumerism. His study of the democratic impulse underlying much Chartist discourse is one of the most innovative aspects of the book. He treads carefully here, noting the ideological differences between different orators and writers. Though this section does not address consumerism as fully as the others, it does lay a groundwork of democratic discourse that Gurney draws upon in later chapters. Indeed, the following chapter incorporates aspects of democratic thought in its discussion of workers’ attempts to control the market. In particular, the chapter addresses the discourse of consumerism seen in the practice of exclusive dealing (purchasing goods from like-minded merchants) and in establishing joint-stock retail cooperatives. These efforts were of particular importance to the women of the Chartist movement, who could use purchases for household consumption as a political tool.

Gurney's next section takes an interesting disciplinary turn by exploring the fiction of Charles Dickens as it engaged with debates about hunger, consumption, and exploitation. Acknowledging that Dickens's complex political views defy easy categorization, Gurney examines the various strains of thought running through Dickens's fiction, from a general Christian paternalism to a morally focused approach to free trade. Ultimately, Gurney argues, Dickens would find none of these approaches satisfactory. Instead, Dickens's oeuvre is marked by a dual movement; he posits a solution to hunger or poverty in one story, only to illustrate its failure in another. Gurney is a perceptive reader of Dickens, demonstrating convincingly that he was finely attuned to the rhetoric of consumerism throughout his literary career.

The rhetoric of consumerism was nowhere as apparent as at the Anti-Corn Law League Bazaar of 1845. In chapter 7, Gurney analyzes this mammoth bazaar as it showcased unapologetic consumerism and free trade. In a fascinating twist, however, commentary on the bazaar revealed ambivalence on the part of certain free traders regarding the moral implications of unfettered consumerism. In the final chapter, Gurney continues to explore the unexpected contradictions in the rhetoric of consumption, this time during the Lancashire “cotton famine” of the early 1860s. As operatives whose relatively high wages had allowed them to enter the market as consumers more fully than ever before found themselves without work, they progressively rid themselves of their belongings in order to provide their households with basic necessities. Commentary on the operatives’ plight grappled with the failure of free trade to ensure a continual rise in the power of consumption.

As a whole, the book aims to “show how contests over who could speak for the consumer lay at the heart of popular politics in early to mid-Victorian England” (312). Gurney's expertise in this area is readily apparent. One of the great strengths of his study is the detail and nuance that he offers with each turn of his topic. He refuses to make easy generalizations, instead entering into the variety of personalities involved in both the Chartist and league efforts and teasing out the interpersonal dynamics of their interactions. This results in a study dense with finite detail. It will be of interest to social historians of the nineteenth century, particularly to those already well-versed in the study of liberal and radical politics.