Political Action at a Distance: Simultaneity, Mediation, and Nationhood, 1817–1819

This chapter considers two moments of national mourning and political crisis in the 1810s. It argues that they produce understandings of collective feeling as a kind of action at a distance. Its two case studies are the death of the Princess Charlotte in 1817 and the deaths of protesters in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. In the aftermath of both, commentators encourage simultaneous forms of mourning, where individuals separated by distance feel an affective bond with others performing the same acts at the same time. In 1817 loyalist newspapers present such gatherings as spontaneous and heartfelt, though they resist the control of authorities. In 1819, radical reformers capitalise on the disruptive potential of action at a distance, advocating simultaneous meetings for political reform. In Mask of Anarchy , Percy Bysshe Shelley argues that virtual collectives acting at a distance produce a radical new vision of the nation.