William Cobbett is an excellent short biography of the great English farmer-journalist written by one of the mightiest wordsmiths of the early 20th century. Cobbett was a man before his time and also one deeply interested in his country's past and the lives of its common people. His reformist writings inflamed hearts and minds across the country and got him numerous court dates and prison sentences, as well as two periods of exile in America. He believed in reforming the system to bring the power to the people and clearly saw the industrial progressivism that would soon personify the Victorian Age as a threat. In short, he was a man after Chesterton's own heart, and you can feel the author's affection for his subject on every page. A kind of proto-populist, Cobbett is a man whom more people should know. And this book is a pretty good place to start that acquaintanceship. ( )