Anne Lister's Political Landscape
Friday, July 24, 2026 - 11:00
The modern political landscape might suggest an association between queer lives and progressive politics, but history is more complicated than that. Like some of her contemporaries, Lister embraced what Lanser frames as a "compensatory conservatism," resting also on her status as a landowner and entrepreneur, where conservative politics to some extent helped balance out the eccentricities of her personal life.
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Full citation:
Lanser, Susan S. 2023. “Anne Lister’s Politics” in Decoding Anne Lister: From the Archives to ‘Gentleman Jack’, Chris Roulston & Caroline Gonda, eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9781009280723
Publication summary:
At the time of writing, the ebook of this publication was available through Open Access at not cost at the following url: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/decoding-anne-lister/E6CFCB182F71891949C4709148422131
Part III: ‘Born at Halifax’: Lister’s Politics, Local and Global; 6. Anne Lister’s Politics by Susan S. Lanser
Whatever the historic setting in which a sapphic story is being written, it’s crucial to research and understand the social and political context. But that aspect is largely outside the scope of the Project except where it directly affects the experience of sexuality.
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As this article focuses on Lister’s political context and activity, it doesn’t have direct connections to her sexuality (though it does to her gender). Lister’s lifetime spanned a very busy political era for the UK, including the later consequences of the French Revolution, the rise of the industrial era, the abolition of the slave trade and then of slavery itself, and other significant events and changes. Through all this, Lister approached issues as a staunch Tory, supporting the Crown, the rights and privileges of landowners, and the special place of the Anglican church. Her attitudes paralleled those of some other female couples of her era, such as Ponsonby and Butler, in what Lanser has previously labeled a “compensatory conservatism” that may have acted to shield the radical aspects of her personal life. But – Lanser notes in the present article – it’s a bit more complicated than that.
The article explores not only the political landscape of her era, but Lister’s own actions and recorded thoughts. Fascinating reading, but I’m not going to summarize it further.
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