The dissertation concerns the changing forms in which the problem of mobilising popular support presented itself within labour politics between the 1830s and the 1870s. Analysis centres on debates over strategy and modes of political organisation and leadership. Particular attention is paid to the assumed shift from the confrontational politics of the Chartist period to the more stable and conciliatory politics of the mid-Victorian years. The nature of the collapse of Chartism is addressed and related to developments in labour politics after the mid-century. Political defeat and the resulting defeatism are deemed integrally related to the tactical initiatives of leaders. Indeed, a primary concern is the charting of responses within labour politics to the reality of organisational defeat. The study of labour politics is deemed non-reducible to a simple teleological model, as labour politics and tactical reasoning were themselves open and contentious, evolving integratively as well as confrontationally within broader political developments. As a consequence, the dissertation seeks to re-emphasise the pragmatic and strategic nature of political debate, concentrating on the attempts by popular radicals to draw and redraw the boundaries of political allegiances and the legitimate scope of radical tactics. The Introduction places popular radical leadership and strategy in the context of broader shifts in British and continental politics, and reflects on the problems of discussing political leadership and strategy. Within the main body of the dissertation. Chapter One outlines the nature of popular radicalism in the 1830s, identifying the growing association of political and economic arguments within the radical critique, and exploring the organisational and strategic forms predominant in early Chartism. Following on from this, the next two chapters investigate the changing forms in which the problems of mobilising popular support presented themselves in the wake of the defeat of 1839. Chapter Two charts the adaptations of popular radical styles of leadership and strategy in the 1840s. The impact of organisational defeat is set against the attempts to relaunch Chartism through more extensive organisation and a wider definition of strategy. Finally, Chapter Three examines the crucial realignments of the mid-Victorian period. The interaction of organisational defeatism with the improved prospects of political and economic reform from the 1860s is discussed. Given the strategic logic and ideological continuity behind the shift to popular Liberalism, the continued attempts to redefine a plebeian mode of popular agitation are assessed. Whilst this dissertation does not seek to downplay the importance of other, notably cultural and linguistic based interpretations, it does attempt to re-emphasise the pragmatic nature of labour politics. Human agency is constrained by its cultural and linguistic context, but within that context a variety of choices and interpretations can be made, and are made, by individuals and groups of differing abilities, experiences and temperaments. Similarly, though politics is clearly at one level the conflict between sets of ideas and values, strategic and organisational considerations remain central to all political struggle. What the dissertation attempts, therefore, is not a complete or absolute explanation of the shifts in labour politics, but an examination of the continuing attempt by plebeian radicals to build and rebuild political alliances through reasessments of the scope of leadership and strategy.