Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England (Hardcover)

This book explores and exemplifies some of the subtler links between opinion, governance and law in early modern England by investigating moral panics. Modern media-driven 'law and order' panics may have originated in eighteenth-century England, with the development of the press and government sensibility to opinion, but there were earlier panics about witchcraft and popery. Essays by an experienced team of scholars discuss broadly episodes of moral panic before and after 1689, and consider their implications for changes in governance.