Date of Award
Fall 1998
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Committee Director
Annette Finley-Croswhite
Committee Member
Douglas Greene
Committee Member
Kathy Pearson
Call Number for Print
Special Collections LD4331.H47 W337
Abstract
Marxist studies concerning crime and criminality in eighteenth-century England, and especially London, have explained the problem strictly in terms of a class based struggle between the elites and the working poor. Marxists further contend that the majority of criminals hanged for capital offenses during the eighteenth-century also came Rom the working poor. Using an analysis of criminal biographies written between 1723 and 1783, this study questions the Marxist paradigm by suggesting that eighteenth-century crime and criminality were not inter-class conflicts but more intra-class struggles, and hangings reflected this.
Rights
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DOI
10.25777/gczy-s697
Recommended Citation
Wakefield, Steven M..
"Fact or Fiction? The Use of Eighteenth-Century Criminal Biographies in Historical Studies"
(1998). Master of Arts (MA), Thesis, History, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/gczy-s697
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/history_etds/262