Thieves' Kitchen: The Regency Underworld

by Donald A. Low

Glossy cover has only light wear. Pages are clean, bright and unmarked. Ships fast from Northern California.

Genres: History

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book on the poverty portrail of life in regency period

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Regency era in England was the last era before modern policing took hold. Private individuals had to prosecute the criminals who robbed them. Law enforcement was primarily the old parish watchmen. Prisons were brutal, hanging was the answer to most crimes but that didn't deter enough people. The idea of an organized police force with arrest and subpoena powers seemed too close to Napoleon's secret police in France, an unacceptable step into dictatorship.
With poverty on the rise, crime was rampant, starting for many of the poor in childhood. Pickpockets, housebreakers, sex workers, confidence tricksters and body snatchers: Low looks at them all, as well as the gaming hells that separated so many people from their money.
4.5 stars.