Hamerton, Christopher (2022) The crucible of the young metropolis. In, Devilry, Deviance, and Public Sphere: The Social Discovery of Moral Panic in Eighteenth Century London. 1 ed. London. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 80-121. (doi:10.1007/978-3-031-14883-5_4).
Abstract
This chapter reflects on the unique character of London in the eighteenth century as a hub of intense social change and consequently a fertile environment for moral panic. Extending the participatory concept of the public sphere to the rank and file that filled its streets. The topography, demography, and economics of the great city and its port are discussed in terms of the contemporary documentation of King, Rocque, and Defoe—in all, London emerges as Leviathan. The reconstruction of the city in the aftermath of the Great Fire is discussed, a process which it is argued, created an unpredictable place of extreme contrasts. A densely populated metropolis, where rich and poor lived, worked, played, and abhorred in close proximity. The chapter develops to consider street life and the thronging crowds readily identified and much maligned by residents and visitors alike and the dangerous nature of the city streets.
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