Making the Peace : Public Order and Public Security in Modern Britain

This is a wide-ranging and immensely readable historical analysis of the fundamental concepts on which the law-and-order debate rests. Charles Townshend's exploration of issues and events of the past century, ranging from the Swing, Chartist, and Plug Riots, through the First World War Defence of the Realm Act and its implications, to the killing of Blair Peach and the Stalker affair, offers us valuable insights into the periodic `crises of order' characteristic of modern Britain. He argues that the traditional virtues of the unwritten constitution may turn into vices in the face or persistent disorder and political violence.