Thief-Taker General: Jonathan Wild and the Emergence of Crime and Corruption as a Way of Life in Eighteenth Century England

by Gerald Howson

The historical literature of political deviance is sparse. This unusual work, chronicling the history of Jonathan Wild, represents an effort to come to terms with one of the more amazing characters of English social history. Wild was both part of the policy system in eighteenth-century England, and also one of the most adroit criminals of the age. In the 1720s, London suffered the worst crime waves in its history. Civic corruption took place on a staggering scale. The government's answer was to pay a bounty for the capture of robbers, thus creating a class of professional informers.Wild was applauded as the most efficient thief hunter and gang breaker in British society; but his own posse of thief catchers was basically a front behind which he was able to control the underground world, through a complex system of blackmail, perjury, and terror which the book details. All who opposed him were betrayed to the law, and in the struggle for power Wild sacrificed several hundred of his own people to the hangman. No one since his time, with the exception of Lavrenti Beria of the late Stalin era GPU so nearly succeeded in bringing the underworld under the control of one system of power.At one level, this is a biography of the world's first supercriminal. At another, it is a sociology of criminal behavior and its political consequences. Howson sheds fresh light, not only on a figure who has become famous in literature, but more important, on the entire structure of gang life. The book is written as a terrifying and fascinating study of a historical epoch; it also offers a completely fresh picture of the birth of modern organized-crime families as part of modern organized political systems.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

338 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[QOH · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only I'd found this book when I was taking legal history! Jonathan Wild was the world's first supercriminal. He had the public snowed into thinking he was a master detective and restorer of stolen items, but all the while he was engineering the thefts himself and sending rival thieves to the gallows.

Howson's book exposes the mind-bogglingly corrupt criminal justice "system" in place in early 18th century London. And it is staggering. That this was the foundation of Anglo-American justice continues to amaze me.

Wild doesn't make for a very romantic villain (he was despicable). It is all rather bleak, but at the same time, riveting reading. His was a train wreck of a life, from start to finish, but for a brief period of time, he managed to exploit just about everyone, to his great financial gain.

I rarely criticize a book for being dense or too detailed -- and I'm hesitant to do it here, because I liked the detail -- but I think most people would want more of a primer on the system as it was in order to understand how Wild exploited it.

Whatever you do, try to find an e-version or a modern printing. I have the 1971 St. Martin's Press hardback (with dust jacket) and kept having allergic reactions to the thing. I don't know if it was how the paper aged or if it has some weird mold going on, but it's something to watch for.

[Meaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a biography of one of the first modern gangsters, Jonathan Wild, who lived in London in the 1700s. He was definitely an extraordinary man. The book is well researched and very detailed, to the point of tediousness -- all the names started to run together after awhile.

[Wulfrun Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great tale of a man who came from My city..