New edition with a new preface and afterword

Peter Linebaugh’s groundbreaking history has become an inescapable part of any understanding of the rise of capitalism. In eighteenth-century London the spectacle of a hanging served the purpose of forcing the poor population of London to accept the criminalization of customary rights and new forms of private property.

In this new edition Peter Linebaugh reinforces his original arguments with detailed responses to his critics based on an impressive array of historical sources.

“There is no denying the weight and breadth of Mr. Linebaugh’s research, which puts to shame much recent work on the eighteenth century. Add the fact that he writes as stylishly as a novelist, and you have a book of rare worth . . . and one which richly deserves to garner a fresh set of admirers.” — The Economist

“Those coming fresh to it will find much to excite them.” — Times Literary Supplement

“A rich and thought-provoking portrait of a time when ‘class warfare’ was an all-to-violent reality.” — Publishers Weekly

Peter Linebaugh, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Toledo, is the author (with Marcus Rediker) of The Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic.

528 pages


Cloth
ISBN-13: 978 1 85984 638 4
£15 / US$20 / CAN$29

Paper
ISBN-13: 978 1 85984 576 9
£11.99 / US$18 / CAN$25