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REVIEWS
SECTION 3
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
| Hard Men: Violence in England since 1750. By Clive Emsley (London: Hambledon and London, 2005. x plus 225 pp.).
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| The historiography of modern English violence has now developed to the point where the need for a synthesis is becoming urgent, particularly one capable of using the topic of violence to make broader points about the history of English society. If it were also able to question popular nostalgia for a mythic past era of tranquility, that would be an additional service. In Hard Men: Violence in England since 1750, Clive Emsley sets out to do all of the above, combining detailed primary research with up-to-date commentary on the field of violence history. The result combines academic rigor with accessible writing and will appeal to specialists and lay readers alike. |
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Although touching on a wide range of specific topics and aspects of violence, two general themes tie together the book's eleven chapters. First, Emsley is interested in undermining the comforting image of a non-violent golden age stretching from the Victorian era to the middle of the twentieth century. Especially since this period is often held up as an epoch of social order and public safety, it is important to take a closer look at actual patterns in violent crime since the late eighteenth century. Second, the author argues that cultural understandings of violence over this period were given long-term coherence by an ideal of the "English gentleman" that emphasized employing violence only when necessary and, when unavoidable, using it "fairly." Although not alien to other nations' cultures of violence, "English difference, as perceived by both English people and others, centred significantly on a characteristic reserve and restraint" (13). Such cultural imperatives were important in molding attitudes toward violence and shaping actual physical aggression; however, as Emsley points out, such ideals were only a partial description of violence's reality. |
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