The London Mob; Violence and Disorder in an Eighteenth-Century City

by Robert Shoemaker

• ISBN13: 9781852853730
• ISBN10: 1852853735
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-09-04
• Publisher: Hambledon & London

Summary

y 1700 London was the largest city in the world, with over 500,000 inhabitants. Very weakly policed, its streets saw regular outbreaks of rioting by a mob easily stirred by economic grievances, politics or religion. In this world, fisticuffs, duels, footpads, pickpockets, and tricksters abounded. Detection and prosecution of crime was part of the business of the citizen, and punishment, whether by the pillory, whipping or hanging, was public and endorsed by crowds. The London Mob draws a fas-cinating portrait of public life in the modern world's first great city, its struggles and tribulations, and its growth and develop-ment to a less volatile society.

Author Biography

Robert Shoemaker is senior lecturer in history at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of Prosecution and Petty Crime in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1660-1725 and co-director of The Old Bailey Proceeedings, an electronic database of all printed eighteenth-century accounts of felony trials.

Table of Contents

Street Life * Insults * Violence * Riots * Duels * Policing the Streets * Punishments * Going to Law * Going into Print * The Changing City

Street Life * Insults * Violence * Riots * Duels * Policing the Streets * Punishments * Going to Law * Going into Print * The Changing City