Criminal biographies enjoyed enormous popularity in the 18th century and today they offer some fascinating perspectives on the period. This book reproduces a number of these biographies including those of street robbers, pickpockets, burglars, horse thieves and confidence tricksters. Each biography is prefaced with background historical information, and thoroughly footnoted.

This book provides an overview of the history of policing in the UK. Its primary aim is to investigate the shifting nature of policing over time, and to provide an historical foundation to today's debates.

This book provides an overview of the history of policing in the UK. Its primary aim is to investigate the shifting nature of policing over time, and to provide an historical foundation to today's debates.

Criminal biographies enjoyed enormous popularity in the Eighteenth Century: today they offer us some fascinating perspectives on the period. Drunks, Whores and Idle Apprentices is the first book to reproduce a number of these biographies in full. Not only do these biographies make fascinating reading, they also raise the problem of how to read them as historical documents. The author argues that instead of trying to uncover simple themes, the most revealing thing about them is the tensions around which they were constructed.