This book explores and exemplifies some of the subtler links between opinion, governance and law in early modern England by investigating moral panics. Modern media-driven 'law and order' panics may have originated in eighteenth-century England, with the development of the press and government sensibility to opinion, but there were earlier panics about witchcraft and popery. Essays by an experienced team of scholars discuss broadly episodes of moral panic before and after 1689, and consider their implications for changes in governance.
Review 'This wide-ranging yet thematically cohesive collection succeeds not only in showcasing the talents of some of the leading historians of early modern England, but in raising fascinating questions about the relationship between the law, the press and elite and popular opinion and mentalities.' - English Historical Review 'There is a great deal to admire in this volume, which brings together a particulalry accomplished and distinguished set of contributors, and has much to say about the complex and shifting relations between authority, information and opinion.' - Peter Marshall, History
About the Author DAVID LEMMINGS is Head of the School of History and Politics at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is the author of Gentlemen and Barristers: the Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730 (Oxford, OUP, 1990), and Professors of the Law: Barristers and English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, OUP, 2000), and editor of The British and their Laws in the Eighteenth Century (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005). CLAIRE WALKER is Lecturer in History at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her published research has focussed on religious women and the politics of recusancy in early modern England. She is the author of Gender and Politics in Early Modern Europe: English Nuns in France and the Low Countries (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003).

Memory of the World Librarian: Quintus

2025-02-18