Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Invisible Men
- 1 Putting on the Uniform
- 2 Multifarious Duties
- 3 Discipline and Defaulters
- 4 Factions and Friendships
- 5 Police Unions and Federations
- 6 The Police and the Public: Animosity
- 7 The Police and the Public: Fraternizing
- 8 The Police and the Public: Women
- 9 Domestic Life
- 10 Taking off the Uniform
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Chief Constables in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, 1900–1939
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction: Invisible Men
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Invisible Men
- 1 Putting on the Uniform
- 2 Multifarious Duties
- 3 Discipline and Defaulters
- 4 Factions and Friendships
- 5 Police Unions and Federations
- 6 The Police and the Public: Animosity
- 7 The Police and the Public: Fraternizing
- 8 The Police and the Public: Women
- 9 Domestic Life
- 10 Taking off the Uniform
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Chief Constables in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, 1900–1939
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We have most of us known and seen the English Policeman crowned and flattered as a Bayard of chivalry and a Caesar of efficiency. We may live to see the English Policeman murdered like a Russian governor, mobbed like a Pro-Boer, stoned like a martyr, kicked like a card-sharper. But we shall not see the Policeman treated as an ordinary man, neither better nor worse than ourselves. For the ordinary lies, apparently, beyond the utmost extravagance of the human imagination.
G.K. Chesterton, ‘The Problem of Policemen’, 1904This book focuses on the lives of ordinary English constables in the city police forces of Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool from 1900 to 1939. What this book is not is a history of police headquarters, criminal investigation departments, and specialized units, or an exploration of government criminal justice policies and legislation except insofar as any of these affected the ranks. Excellent studies have been published on policing as an institution, yet in most of them the constables walking their beats have remained anonymous. Laws were passed and policemen were meant to enforce them; disturbances erupted and policemen were meant to restore order. Constables appear as a category but rarely as individuals. Considering that constables spent much of their time alone, carrying out their duties according to their own priorities, this omission leaves a gap in any analysis of policing. In recent years, this oversight has begun to be remedied.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Invisible MenThe Secret Lives of Police Constables in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, 1900-1939, pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2010