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Tales from the Hanging Court | 
 enlarge | Authors: Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $17.16
You Save: $32.79 (66%)
New (12) Used (6) from $17.16
Sales Rank: 680647
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0340913754
Dewey Decimal Number: 345.42107
EAN: 9780340913758
ASIN: 0340913754
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
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 colourful, vibrant and sometimes scandalous world of pre-industrial London:
"This was a time when an orphan could live for a week by stealing a single handkerchief, but be hanged for less; when stocks and pillories were still in use, duels were still fought, and the medieval punishment of 'pressing' to death--spreadeagled on the ground and poled with heavy weights - was still on the statute books; when your jailer could invite you upstairs for a beer or leave you in an airless dungeon with no water on a whim; when you might be murdered in your bed for some linen or a silver tankard ", Time Out, 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.
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