In his examination of fifty years of Westmorland's history the author focuses on the role of dissent. The county is often represented as a bastion of paternalism, a place where social and political control was in the hands of great landowners and wealthy businessmen and went unchallenged. This study exposes the inaccuracy of that stereotype by showing the strength of Westmorland's involvement with national protest movements between 1880 and 1930.

The organisations considered here were at the heart of contemporary attempts to create a better world. What emerges is a history which gives a place to those who challenged the establishement - the supporters of votes for women, of fairer working conditions, of local democracy, and of peaceful solutions to differences between nations.

They deserve to be better known, for thier influence spread beyond Westmorland and contributed to the success of national and international campaigns for change.

Roger Smalley is the author of Depression and the New Deal (1990), 'The Westmorland Suffragists' (2010), 'Theodora Wilson Wilson, Westmorland's Forgotten Rebel' (2010) and 'The Labour Movement in Westmorland' (2011). He is currently working on a biography of the Lancashire socialist Ether Carnie Holdsworth.

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