Nether World: Crime and the Police Courts in Victorian London
Drew D. Gray, "Nether World: Crime and the Police Courts in Victorian London"
English | ISBN: 1789148545 | 2024 | 352 pages | PDF | 17 MB
English | ISBN: 1789148545 | 2024 | 352 pages | PDF | 17 MB
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.
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