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Tales from the Hanging Court
Tales from the Hanging Court draws on published accounts of Old Bailey trials from 1674-1834, a rich seam of social, political and legal history. Through these compelling true stories of theft, murder, rape and blackmail, Hitchcock and Shoemaker capture the early history of the judicial system and the colorful, vibrant and sometimes scandalous world of pre-industrial London.
In its heyday the court was a soap opera of intrigue, sensation and murky goings on where authors such as Dickens and Defoe would go for inspiration. Thieves and murderers were often caught by members of the public and prosecutions brought by victims. Hitchcock and Shoemaker chart an increasingly sophisticated society taking crime and punishment away from the anarchy of the London mob to put it into a court where a judge and jury meted out justice.
The authors paint a vivid picture of a flourishing city where market capitalism and Enlightenment thinking battled to impose order on the chaotic crime that accompanied Britain's economic miracle.
In its heyday the court was a soap opera of intrigue, sensation and murky goings on where authors such as Dickens and Defoe would go for inspiration. Thieves and murderers were often caught by members of the public and prosecutions brought by victims. Hitchcock and Shoemaker chart an increasingly sophisticated society taking crime and punishment away from the anarchy of the London mob to put it into a court where a judge and jury meted out justice.
The authors paint a vivid picture of a flourishing city where market capitalism and Enlightenment thinking battled to impose order on the chaotic crime that accompanied Britain's economic miracle.
- GenresHistory
432 pages, Paperback
First published December 29, 2006
29 people want to read
About the author
Tim Hitchcock
51 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Tim Hitchcock has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (1980) and the University of Oxford (1985). He began his academic career at the then Polytechnic of North London, where he taught early modern social history and humanities computing from 1989 onwards, searving as Head of the History group from 1992. In 1997 he took up a Readership at the University of Hertfordshire, where he served as Dean of Research for Humanities and Education, and from 2003, as founding director of the Social Science Arts and Humanities Research Institute. He was awarded a Professorship in Eighteenth-Century History in 2001; and was appointed Professor of Digital History at the University of Sussex in 2013; and co-director of the Sussex Humanities Lab in 2015.
Hitchcock has published twelve books on the histories of gender, sexuality and poverty focussed primarily on eighteenth-century London. With Professor Robert Shoemaker and others he has also created a series of websites helping to give direct public access to 37 billion words of primary sources evidencing the history of Britain. Designed to underpin the writing of a new 'history from below', these sites include: The Old Bailey Online, 1674 to 1913 (www.oldbaileyonline.org); London Lives, 1690-1800 (www.londonlives.org); Locating London's Past (www.locatinglondon.org); and Connected Histories (www.connectedhistories.org). Jointly with Robert Shoemaker, in 2011 he was given the History Today, Trustees' Award for his contribution to historical research. Hitchcock was a founding member of the AHRC Advisory Board and Peer Review College, and is currently a member and past chair of the AHRC's Digital Transformations Advisory Group. He also sits on the British Library's Advisory Council. From 2012, he has been Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded project: The Digital Panopticon: The Global Impact of London Punishments, 1780-1925.
-- from http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/336034
Tim Hitchcock has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (1980) and the University of Oxford (1985). He began his academic career at the then Polytechnic of North London, where he taught early modern social history and humanities computing from 1989 onwards, searving as Head of the History group from 1992. In 1997 he took up a Readership at the University of Hertfordshire, where he served as Dean of Research for Humanities and Education, and from 2003, as founding director of the Social Science Arts and Humanities Research Institute. He was awarded a Professorship in Eighteenth-Century History in 2001; and was appointed Professor of Digital History at the University of Sussex in 2013; and co-director of the Sussex Humanities Lab in 2015.
Hitchcock has published twelve books on the histories of gender, sexuality and poverty focussed primarily on eighteenth-century London. With Professor Robert Shoemaker and others he has also created a series of websites helping to give direct public access to 37 billion words of primary sources evidencing the history of Britain. Designed to underpin the writing of a new 'history from below', these sites include: The Old Bailey Online, 1674 to 1913 (www.oldbaileyonline.org); London Lives, 1690-1800 (www.londonlives.org); Locating London's Past (www.locatinglondon.org); and Connected Histories (www.connectedhistories.org). Jointly with Robert Shoemaker, in 2011 he was given the History Today, Trustees' Award for his contribution to historical research. Hitchcock was a founding member of the AHRC Advisory Board and Peer Review College, and is currently a member and past chair of the AHRC's Digital Transformations Advisory Group. He also sits on the British Library's Advisory Council. From 2012, he has been Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded project: The Digital Panopticon: The Global Impact of London Punishments, 1780-1925.
-- from http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/336034
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July 5, 2015
Love British history, especially of the legal variety...this was great!!
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