Nether World: Crime and the Police Courts in Victorian London
Reaktion Books
eISBN: 978-1-78914-894-7 | Cloth: 978-1-78914-854-1
See other books on: Crime | Criminology | Great Britain | Victorian Era (1837-1901) | Victorian London
See other titles from Reaktion Books
eISBN: 978-1-78914-894-7 | Cloth: 978-1-78914-854-1
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ABOUT THIS BOOK
A new account of urban Victorian life told through the dubious day-to-day of London’s police courts.
Nether World presents a rich, often humorous glimpse into everyday life in Victorian London through a revealing account of nineteenth-century police courts. People of all classes brought complaints to this court about those who had hurt, abused, or stolen from them—drunks, pickpockets, wife-beaters, and fraudsters—who were each in their turn judged by magistrates wielding broad summary powers. Delving into underexamined court records and the pages of a fast-developing newspaper industry, Drew D. Gray offers a fresh description of a vibrant, ever-changing metropolis and considers ongoing issues such as poverty, homelessness, violence, substance abuse, prostitution, and—of course—crime.
Nether World presents a rich, often humorous glimpse into everyday life in Victorian London through a revealing account of nineteenth-century police courts. People of all classes brought complaints to this court about those who had hurt, abused, or stolen from them—drunks, pickpockets, wife-beaters, and fraudsters—who were each in their turn judged by magistrates wielding broad summary powers. Delving into underexamined court records and the pages of a fast-developing newspaper industry, Drew D. Gray offers a fresh description of a vibrant, ever-changing metropolis and considers ongoing issues such as poverty, homelessness, violence, substance abuse, prostitution, and—of course—crime.
See other books on: Crime | Criminology | Great Britain | Victorian Era (1837-1901) | Victorian London
See other titles from Reaktion Books
