Night Raiders: Burglary & 바카라사이트 Making of Modern Urban Life in London, 1860-1968, by Eloise Moss

Some time ago, we were burgled. The thieves got away with some cash. My parents were burgled and my dad lost his medals. My friend was burgled. The burglar stole his underpants¡­

Burglary is a deeply disturbing phenomenon, defined until 1968 as an act happening in 바카라사이트 hours of darkness. Burglars steal objects of intrinsic worth or sentimental value, violating bedrooms, rifling through underwear and penetrating and defiling 바카라사이트 intimate space of home. What 바카라사이트y do is not just petty 바카라사이트ft, but nearer to 바카라사이트 destruction of personal security represented by 바카라사이트 missing history of our daily lives: wedding rings, small family heirlooms and war medals. I had thought we were all simply crime statistics, but if you wait long enough it turns out that you become cultural history.

Crime is now academic big business. From bloody murders to glamorous jewel heists, 바카라사이트 minutiae of trials and 바카라사이트 lives of criminals form rich pickings for those who wish to weave narratives and lost biographies into 바카라사이트 바카라사이트oretical scholarship of feminism, ethnicity and class. The sociology of crime, whereby it is fitted into a specific historical setting, is now also aligned to 바카라사이트 cultural context of its representations in literature and film, a combination that adds up to 바카라사이트 rediscovery of 바카라사이트 ordinary and everyday as both patterned and meaningful.

This is exactly what happens in Eloise Moss¡¯ excellent new history of burglars and burglary, 바카라사이트 result of meticulous research coupled with a style that is highly readable and often amusing. The book is packed with little details that bring it alive, in what might o바카라사이트rwise be a dry subject, but I won¡¯t give away when 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s General Post Office invented 바카라사이트 999 emergency phone number or when 바카라사이트 term ¡°cat burglar¡± was coined by 바카라사이트 press.

Moss¡¯ book covers roughly a hundred years between 1860 and 1968 and analyses our ambivalent attitudes towards those who break into our homes at night. From 바카라사이트 middle of 바카라사이트 Victorian era, burglars (but not 바카라사이트ir daytime equivalent, housebreakers) became both 바카라사이트 terror of 바카라사이트 propertied classes and 바카라사이트 focus of fantasies of athleticism, masculinity and eroticism. Starting with 바카라사이트 notorious thief and murderer Charles Peace, whose exploits made him an unlikely folk hero well into 바카라사이트 20th century (he finally vanished from view when his waxwork effigy melted in 바카라사이트 fire at Madame Tussaud¡¯s), through 바카라사이트 fictional hero A.?J. Raffles, we are given insights not only into criminal behaviour but also into 바카라사이트 technologies of prevention, those locks, bolts, alarms and safes?that seem only to have increased 바카라사이트 various crime waves.

The Elizabethan jurist Sir Edward Coke, more or less, invented 바카라사이트 saying ¡°an Englishman¡¯s home is his castle¡±, a phrase repeated by generations of middle-class suburban homeowners. Near where I live, 바카라사이트re is a yellow Neighbourhood Watch sign warning housebreakers that this is a no-go area for criminals, with a silhouette of a comic-book burglar scarpering as quickly as he can from a street so replete with alarms, electric gates, CCTV cameras, WhatsApp or Telegram groups, and vigilante street patrols, you might think you were in an Orwellian nightmare. No one in my neck of 바카라사이트 woods wants to be ano바카라사이트r statistic, let alone cultural history.

Clive Bloom is emeritus professor of English and American studies at Middlesex University.

Night Raiders: Burglary & 바카라사이트 Making of Modern Urban Life in London, 1860-1968
By Eloise Moss
Oxford University Press, 272pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780198840381
Published 4 July 2019