An exploration of links between opinion and governance in Early Modern England, studying moral panics about crime, sex and belief. Hypothesizing that media-driven panics proliferated in the 1700s, with the development of newspapers and government sensibility to opinion, it also considers earlier panics about cross-dressing and witchcraft.

'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

Autorentext
DONNA ANDREW Professor of History, the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada ANNA BAYMAN Assistant Editor for the English Historical Review and Faculty of History, University of Oxford, UK MICHAEL DAVIS Lecturer in History, the University of Tasmania, Australia MALCOLM GASKILL Reader in Early Modern History, the University of East Anglia, UK TIM HARRIS Munro-Goodwin-Wilkinson Professor in European History, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA DAVID LEMMINGS Professor of History, the University of Adelaide, Australia DAVID ROWE Director of the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR), University of Western Sydney, Australia CINDY MCCREERY Senior Lecturer in History, the University of Sydney, Australia RANDALL MCGOWEN Professor of History, the University of Oregon, USA CLAIRE WALKER Lecturer in History, the University of Adelaide, Australia ALEXANDRA WALSHAM Professor of History, the University of Exeter, UK

Inhalt
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Law and Order, Moral Panics, and Early Modern England; D.Lemmings The Concept of the Moral Panic: An Historico-Sociological Positioning; D.Rowe 'This Newe Army of Satan': The Jesuit Mission and the Formation of Public Opinion in Elizabethan England; A.Walsham Cross-dressing and Pamphleteering in Early Seventeenth-century London; A.Bayman Fear made Flesh: The English Witch Panic of 1645-47; M.Gaskill 'A sainct in shewe, a Devill in deede': Moral Panics and Anti-Puritanism in Seventeenth-century England; T.Harris 'Remember Justice Godfrey': The Popish Plot and the Construction of Panic in Seventeenth-century Media; C.Walker The Dark Side of Enlightenment: The London Journal, Moral Panics and the Law in the Eighteenth Century; D.Lemmings Forgers and Forgery: Severity and Social Identity in Eighteenth-Century Justice; R.McGowen 'How frail are Lovers vows, and Dicers oaths': Gaming, Governing and Moral Panic in Britain, 1781-1782; D.Andrew A Moral Panic in London, c. 1790: 'The Monster' and the Press; C.McCreery The British Jacobins: Folk devils in the Age of Counter-Revolution?; M.Davis Conclusion: Moral Panics, Law and the Transformation of the Public Sphere in Early Modern England; D.Lemmings Index