Book contents
- History and the Law
- History and the Law
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A Beginning: ‘History’, by Stephen Dunn
- 1 Its Ziggy Shape
- 2 Law Troubles
- 3 Letters of the Law
- 4 The Worst of It
- 5 Who Owns Maria
- 6 Sisters in Law
- 7 Hating the Law
- 8 The Kind of Law a Historian Loved
- An Ending: Not a Story
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Law Troubles
Two Historians and Some Threatening Letters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2020
Book contents
- History and the Law
- History and the Law
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A Beginning: ‘History’, by Stephen Dunn
- 1 Its Ziggy Shape
- 2 Law Troubles
- 3 Letters of the Law
- 4 The Worst of It
- 5 Who Owns Maria
- 6 Sisters in Law
- 7 Hating the Law
- 8 The Kind of Law a Historian Loved
- An Ending: Not a Story
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 3 has a dual focus: it describes the law troubles of E. P. Thompson and his research assistant Edward Dodd in investigating eighteenth-century threatening letters for ‘The Crime of Anonymity’, and it explores threatening letters themselves as windows onto popular law consciousness. The research relationship between Thompson and Dodd was conducted by letter, and the chapter raises questions about letter-writing as a social and legal practice.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- History and the LawA Love Story, pp. 27 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020