Crime and the Law, The Social History of Crime in Western Europe since 1500

London: Europa Publications Limited, 1980. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good/Good. First edition, first printing. Hardback in dustwrapper. 24.5 × 16cm, 381pp. "The essays in this book examine some aspects of the history of crime and law in selected areas and periods in western Europe since 1500. They have in common a critical interest in three fundamental questions which face any student of this rapidly growing subject. How reliable and comprehensive are the records of crime upon which the historian must depend? What was the variable social meaning of the acts labelled as crimes by law-makers and enforcers? And how have changes in crime and the legal penalties attached to it reflect long-term social and economic change? Each essay is self-contained, but also illustrates the diverse methods by which, in the cases with which they are concerned, these questions may begin to be answered. The book begins and concludes with seminal studies in which the editors seek to focus the diverse themes elsehwere illuminated within it. Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker identify a 'judicial revolution' in Western Europe between 1500 and 1800, and V A C Gatrell examines the reality and possible explanations of the decline of nibeteenth century English theft and violence. These synoptic essays are amplified by the essays on crime and law in early modern England, Spain and Scotland by J A Sharpe, Michael Weisser and Stephen J Davies. Christina Larner applies the insights of 'labelling theory' to the history of witchcraft, and Jennifer Davis examines the 'moral panic' over the garotting epidemic in mid-Victorian London. David Philips discusses the evolution of the 'police idea' in England between 1780 and 1830, and Robert Tombs the meaning of criminality in the 1871 Paris Commune. The book will be indispensable to all who seek to a critical awareness of the methodological and evidential pitfalls associated with a subject which has to be studied through the records left by its enemies." Condition: A good copy of a scarce title. There is a slight lean to the spine and some spotted foxing to the prelims and page edges but the book is in strong readable condition.