Stella & Rose's Books

Front cover

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• PART ONE: THE ORIGINS OF VAGRANCY
• Chapter 1 The new poverty
• The de-sanctification of the poor
• A vagrant underworld
• The magisterial position
• Conclusions
• Chapter 2 The growth of vagrancy
• The numbers issue
• Poverty: dimension and structures
• Population growth and dispossession, 1500-1650
• Wage-labour: a way out?
• Conclusions
• Chapter 3 Migrants and vagrants
• The rise of subsistence migration
• The geography of vagrancy
• Explanations
• 'London cannot relieve England'
• Provincial towns
• Conclusions
• PART TWO: THE STRUCTURE OF VAGRANCY
• Chapter 4 A promiscuous generation
• Fragmented families
• Alternative societies
• Conclusions
• Chapter 5 On the road
• The road goes on
• Objectives
• Haunts and habitats
• Seasonal shifts
• Getting around
• Hospitality
• Conclusions
• Chapter 6 Dangerous trades
• The mutable world of work
• Traders and craftsmen
• Military men
• Entertainers
• Itinerant healers
• Errant clerks
• Wandering wizards
• Conclusions
• PART THREE: VAGRANTS, SOCIETY AND THE STATE
• Chapter 7 The seminary of vagabondage
• The beggar's burden
• Licensed and illicit ains
• The pitfalls of charity
• Conclusion
• Chapter 8 The underworld uncovered
• Reality or illusion?
• Crime in the underworld: an overview
• Professional crime
• Crimes against persons
• Crimes against the state
• Conclusions
• Chapter 9 State Policy: from Utopia to the penal colony
• The enforcement issue
• Modest proposals
• Inventions of absolutism
• Retribution
• Bridewell: a proto-penal institution that failed
• Conclusions
• CONCLUSIONS
• Notes
• Appendix: Tables
• Index