"This biography explores the foundation of Shelley's revolutionary politics--his anger at a system in which the rich lived luxuriously at the expense of the poor and oppressed, causing war, colonialism and suffering. An anti-monarchist and a forerunner of civil disobedience, his poetry was considered blasphemous and seditious, and was pirated by the radical press to reach new working class audiences. His revolutionary ideals were espoused by all those fighting for a more equal society, and his work inspired radical movements and thinkers including the Chartists, Marx and Gandhi. Today his words are still used, from Tiananmen Square to the anti-austerity struggles across Europe."--Page 4 of cover.