Reviews
Abstract
the london journal, Vol. 38 No. 2, July 2013, 166–74 London In the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing. By J. White. Pp. 22 + 682, 13 illustrations, 13 maps, 1 index. London: The Bodley Head, 2012. £25. ISBN 9781847921802. Hardback. My first thought upon receiving this book to review was to wonder how this might offer something different, given the proliferation of popular histories of London in recent years. These books have particularly sought to offer what might be seen as alternative accounts of London’s past, focusing on less known and arguably less privileged histories. Thus, in the last couple of years, we have seen books by popular authors such as Dan Cruickshank (2010) and Catharine Arnold (2011, 2012) ‘uncovering’ the secrets, sins and vices of Georgian London. Thankfully, this book, in contrast, offers a ‘popular history’ that jobbing historians, as well as non-academic readers, will value. This is at least partly due to the background of the author Jerry White, who, as a local historian, produced two of the most fascinating and vivid accounts of working-class life in London during the late Victorian period and the interwar period. His studies of the Rothschild Buildings in east