This book traces the beginnings of a shift from one model of gendered power to another. Over the course of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, traditional practices of local government by heads of household began to be undermined by new legal ideas about what it meant to hold office. In London, this enabled the emergence of a new kind of officeholding and a new kind of policing, rooted in a fraternal culture of official masculinity. London officers arrested, searched, and sometimes assaulted people on the basis of gendered suspicions, especially poorer women. Gender and Policing in Early Modern England describes how a recognisable form of gendered policing emerged from practices of local government by patriarchs and addresses wider questions about the relationship between gender and the state.
By:
Jonah Miller (University of Cambridge) Imprint: Cambridge University Press Country of Publication: United Kingdom ISBN:9781009305198 ISBN 10: 1009305190 Series:Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History Pages: 265 Publication Date:10 April 2025 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction; Part I. Patriarchy: 1. Office and household; Part II. Remaking Office: 2. The law of office; 3. Office and manhood; Part III. Policing: 4. Arrests; 5. Searches; Conclusion.
Jonah Miller is a Research Fellow at King's College, Cambridge.
