The Democratic Review of British and Foreign Politics, History, & Literature [.].

8vo. 2 parts in one volume. (4), 476 pp.; 80 (instead of 160) pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine and spine title-label. First edition of the earliest English socialist journal in book form. Edited by the political activist and chartist leader G. J. Harney (1817-97), seeking "to present his own manifesto for radical political change" (Carter). In circulation for a mere 16 months, from June 1849 to September 1850, the magazine occupied a large group of unpaid writers on European affairs and the Italian question in particular, including Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, Giuseppe Mazzini, Friedrich Engels and Louis Blanc. The "Review" criticized domestic parliamentary decisions which impacted negatively on working-class interests, and repeatedly invoked the evils of the monarchical system. - Occasionally somewhat browned and brownstained. Hinges professionally repaired. Volume two lacking the separate title-page and preliminaries, as well as the issues of August and September 1850; pencil note about the incomplete volume 2 to first page. - Provenance: contemporary pencil ownership of Adam Smack, 13 Cornwall Street, to flyleaf. Presumably acquired from the Museum Book Store in London, with their label to pastedown. Latterly in the collection of Chimen Abramsky (1916-2010), London. - Harrison/Thompson, Bibliography of the Chartist Movement 102. Carter, Britain, Ireland and the Italian Risorgimento 65ff.