Description:
This book provides an account and analysis of the history of the Bow Street Runners, precursors of today's police force, through a detailed analysis of a wide range of both qualitative and quantitative research data.
Review Quotes:
'Cox's approach is so methodical and finely referenced that the reader is persuaded by his argument that the Runners have not, until now, had their due. [...] This book is long overdue, especially as the Runners have appeared in a number of recent works of fiction as Georgian quasi-James Bond characters. This revisionist account ensures that they will be better understood and may cease to be defined as hopeless failures in the crime-infested world we know through the art of contemporary caricaturists Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray. They were, as Cox admirably shows, heroes of their time.' - Stephen Wade, University of Hull and the University of Oxford,