Monographs
Kriminalität in Gesellschaft und Kultur (Crime in Society and Culture) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, currently being developed, probable publication in 2026).
“This is your hour”: Christian Intellectuals in Britain and the Crisis of Europe, 1937–1949 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019). (Now available as a paperback!)
The Most Remarkable Woman in England: Poison, Celebrity and the Trials of Beatrice Pace (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012).
Violence and Crime in Nineteenth-Century England: The Shadow of Our Refinement (London: Routledge, 2004).
Edited Collections
Special issue: “Christian Modernities in Twentieth-Century Britain and Ireland”, Contemporary British History 34, no. 4 (2020).
Christianity and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe: Conflict, Community and the Social Order (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2016). (OPEN ACCESS)
(with Paul Knepper) Special issue: “Crime Stories: Criminality, Policing and the Press in Inter-war European and Transatlantic Perspectives”, Media History 20, no. 4 (2014).
Articles, Essays and Chapters
“‘The Laws and Values Not Made by Man’: Christian Intellectuals in Britain and the Challenge of the Technological Society, 1930s–1950s”, in Sakralisierung – Disziplinäre Zugänge und empirische Forschungsperspektiven, ed. Johannes Paulmann and Jan Kusber (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, forthcoming 2024).
“The Press and the Criminal Trial: Britain in the 1920s”, in Criminal Justice in Modern Europe, 1870–1970, ed. Richard Wetzell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, 2024).
“Crime, Media and Modernity in the Twentieth Century”, in A Global History of Crime and Punishment in the Modern Age, ed. Paul Lawrence (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming, 2023).
“‘The Rightful Purpose of Things’: The World Council of Churches and the Technological Society, 1937–1948”, in Rethinking the Sacred in Modern European History, ed. Bernhard Gißibl and Andrea Hofmann (Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2023), 191-212.
“Introduction: Christian Modernities in Britain and Ireland in the Twentieth Century”, Contemporary British History 34, no. 4 (2020): 495–509, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2020.1789458
“Going ‘Part of the Way Together’: Christian Intellectuals, Modernity and the Secular in 1930s and 1940s Britain”, Contemporary British History 34, no. 4 (2020): 580–602, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2020.1801428
“Sympathies and Scandals: (Counter-)Narratives of Criminality and Policing in Inter-War Britain”, in Martina Althoff, Bernd Dollinger and Holger Schmidt (ed.), Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020), 161–180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47236-8_8
(with Johannes Paulmann and Fabian Cremer): “Linkage – Digitale Gegenwart und Zukunft historischer Forschung. Die Ziele der Konsortialinitiative 4Memory”, VHD Journal, 2020, 26-34.
(with Johannes Paulmann), “Die digitale Integration von historischer Forschung, Gedächtniseinrichtungen und Infrastrukturen“ in Archivnachrichten aus Hessen, special issue (Summer 2020), 77-81.
“When Personalism Met Planning: Jacques Maritain and a British Christian Intellectual Network, 1937–1949”, in Rajesh Heynickx und Stéphane Symons (ed.), So What’s New about Scholasticism? How Neo-Thomism Helped Shape the Twentieth Century (Berlin/London: Walter De Gruyter, 2018), 77–108.
“Future Research Agendas on Violent Crime: The Challenges to History from Evolutionary Psychology”, in special issue on future agendas in crime history: Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History and Societies 21, no. 2 (2017): 351–359. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.2036
“Blessed is the Nation? Christianity and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe”, in Christianity and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe: Conflict, Community, and the Social Order, ed. John Carter Wood (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2016), 11–31.
“‘The rock of human sanity stands in the sea where it always stood’: Britishness, Christianity, and the Experience of (Near) Defeat, 1937–1941”, in Christianity and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe: Conflict, Community, and the Social Order, ed. John Carter Wood (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2016), 131–148.
“‘A fundamental re-orientation of outlook’: Religiöse Intellektuelle und das Ziel einer ‘christlichen Gesellschaft’ in Großbritannien, 1937-1949”, in Kulturelle Souveränität – Politische Deutungs‐ und Handlungsmacht jenseits des Staates im 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Johannes Paulmann, Gregor Feindt, and Bernhard Gißibl (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), 165–194.
“Crime News and the Press”, in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and Criminal Justice, ed. Paul Knepper and Anja Johansen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 301–319.
(with Peter King) “Black People and the Criminal Justice System: Prejudice and Practice in Later Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century London”, Historical Research 88 (2015): 100–124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.12063
(with Paul Knepper) “Crime Stories: Criminality, Policing and the Press in Inter-war European and Transatlantic Perspectives”, Media History 20, no. 4 (2014): 345–351. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2014.949409
“The Constables and the Garage Girl: The Police, the Press, and the Case of Helene Adele”, Media History 20, no. 4 (2014): 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2014.949421
“Zwischen Mammon und Marx: Christliche Kapitalismuskritik in Großbritannien 1930-39”, in Religion und Kapitalismus, ed. Robert König (Kaltenleutgeben: Ferstl & Perz, 2014), 147–176.
“Public Opinion and the Rhetoric of Police Powers in 1920s Britain”, in Justice et espaces publics en Occident de l’Antiquité à nos jours: Pouvoirs, Publicité et Citoyenneté, ed. Pascal Bastien, Donald Fyson, Jean-Philippe Garneau, and Thierry Nootens (Quebec: Presses de l’Université de Québec, 2014), 327–337.
“Drinking, Fighting and Working-Class Sociability in Nineteenth-Century Britain”, in Drink in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, ed. Susanne Schmid and Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2014), 71–80.
“Watching the Detectives (and the Constables): Fearing the Police in 1920s Britain”, in Moral Panics, Social Fears, and the Media: Historical Perspectives, ed. Sian Nicholas and Tom O’Malley (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), 147–161.
“‘German Foolishness’ and the ‘Prophet of Doom’: Oswald Spengler and the Inter-war British Press”, in Oswald Spengler als europäisches Phänomen. Der Transfer der Kultur- und Geschichtsmorphologie im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit (1919-1939), ed. Zaur Gasimov and Carl Antonius Lemke Duque (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013): 157–184.
“Press, Politics and the ‘Police and Public’ Debates in Late 1920s Britain”, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History and Societies 16, no. 1 (2012): 75–98. https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1324
“‘Going mad is their only way of staying sane’: Norbert Elias and the Civilised Violence of J.G. Ballard”, in J.G. Ballard: Visions and Revisions, ed. Jeannette Baxter and Rowland Wymer (London: Palgrave, 2011), 198–214.
“A Change of Perspective: Integrating Evolutionary Psychology into the Historiography of Violence”, British Journal of Criminology 51 (2011): 479–498. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azq077
“Reading Spaces and Reading Violence in Nineteenth-Century Britain”, Journal for the Study of British Cultures 17, no. 2 (2010): 133–143.
“‘The Third Degree’: Press Reporting, Crime Fiction and Police Powers in 1920s Britain”, Twentieth Century British History, 21, no. 4 (2010): 464–485. https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwq032
(with Anja Müller-Wood) “How Is Culture Biological? Violence: Real and Imagined”, Politics and Culture (2010, Issue 1, Bioculture: Evolutionary Cultural Studies, https://www.politicsandculture.org/2010/04/28/contents-2/).
“‘Those Who Have Had Trouble Can Sympathise with You’: Press Writing, Reader Responses and a Murder Trial in Interwar Britain”, Journal of Social History 43, no. 2 (2009): 439–462. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jsh.0.0277
“‘Mrs. Pace’ and the Ambiguous Language of Victimisation”, in (Re)Interpretations: The Shapes of Justice in Women’s Experience, ed. Lisa Dresdner and Laurel Peterson (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), 79–93.
(with Anja Müller-Wood) “Bringing the Past to Heel: History, Identity and Violence in Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs”, Literature and History 16, no. 2 (2007): 43–56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7227/LH.16.2.4
“Evolution, Civilization and History: A Response to Wiener and Rosenwein”, Cultural and Social History 4, no. 4 (2007): 559–565. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2752/147800407X243541
“The Limits of Culture? Society, Evolutionary Psychology and the History of Violence”, Cultural and Social History 4, no. 1 (2007): 95–114. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2007.11425739
“Locating Violence: The Spatial Production and Construction of Physical Aggression”, in Assaulting the Past: Violence and Civilization in Historical Context, ed. Katherine D. Watson (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), 20–37.
“Conceptualising Cultures of Violence and Cultural Change”, in Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical Perspective, ed. Stuart Carroll (London: Macmillan, 2007), 79–96.
“Criminal Violence in Modern Britain”, History Compass 4, no. 1 (2006): 77–90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00200.x
“The Process of Civilization (and its Discontents): Violence, Narrative and History”, in Discourses of Violence – Violence of Discourses: Critical Interventions, Transgressive Readings and Post-National Negotiations, ed. Dirk Wiemann, Agata Stopinska, Anke Bartels and Johannes Angermüller (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005), 117–128.
“A Useful Savagery: The Invention of Violence in Nineteenth-Century England”, Journal of Victorian Culture 9, no. 1 (2004): 22–42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/jvc.2004.9.1.22
“It’s a Small World After All? Reflections on Violence in Comparative Perspectives”, in Comparative Histories of Crime, ed. Barry Godfrey, Clive Emsley and Graeme Dunstall (Cullompton: Willan, 2003), 36–52.
“Self-Policing and the Policing of the Self: Violence, Protection and the Civilising Bargain in Britain”, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History and Societies 7, no. 1 (2003): 109–128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.614
Shorter articles and reviews
Review of Callum G. Brown, David Nash and Charlie Lynch, The Humanist Movement in Modern Britain: A History of Ethicists, Rationalists and Humanists in Contemporary British History (forthcoming).
Review of Andrew Chandler, British Christians and the Third Reich: Church, State, and the Judgement of Nations in German Historical Institute London Bulletin Vol. XLVI, No. 1 (May 2024): 94–100.
Review of Eloise Moss, Night Raiders: Burglary and the Making of Modern Urban Life in London, 1860–1968 in Cultural and Social History 17.4 (2020): 579-580.
“Hearing the Unspoken Histories” (review of Peter K. Andersson, Silent History: Body Language and Nonverbal Identity, 1860–1914), in Journal of Victorian Culture 25.2 (2020): 322-326.
Review of Maren Tribukait, Gefährliche Sensationen. Die Visualisierung von Verbrechen in deutschen und amerikanischen Pressefotografien 1920-1970 in Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 20 (2018): 230–231.
Review of Hans Joas, Die Macht des Heiligen. Eine Alternative zur Geschichte von der Entzauberung, in Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte 37 (2018): 275–276.
Review of Christopher Hilliard, The Littlehampton Libels: A Miscarriage of Justice and a Mystery about Words in 1920s England in Cultural and Social History 15.4 (2018): 617–618.
Review of Richard Mc Mahon, Homicide in Pre-Famine and Famine Ireland in Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History and Societies 22.1 (2018): 147–149.
Review of Drew D. Gray, Crime, Policing and Punishment in England, 1660–1914 in Journal of British Studies 56.2 (2017): 426–428.
Review of Louise Jackson and Angela Bartie, Policing Youth: Britain 1945–1970 in Economic History Review 68.3 (2015): 1081–1082.
Review of Pieter Spierenburg, Violence and Punishment. Civilizing the Body through Time in Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History and Societies 18.2 (2014): 158–161.
Review of Rosalind Crone, Violent Victorians: Popular Entertainment in Nineteenth-Century London in the Journal of Social History 48, no. 1 (2014): 205–207.
Review of Judith Rowbotham, Marianna Muravyeva and David Nash, eds, Shame, Blame and Culpability: Crime and Violence in the Modern State in Law, Crime and History 3, no. 2 (2013): 183–186.
Review of Haia Shpayer-Makov, The Ascent of the Detective: Police Sleuths in Victorian and Edwardian England in Reviews in History (May 2013) (http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1409).
Review of Monica Flegel, Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England in Nineteenth-Century Prose 40, no. 2 (2013), 258–261.
Review of Joanne Klein, Invisible Men: The Secret Lives of Police Constables in Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, 1900-1939 in the Journal of British Studies 50, no. 4 (2011): 1016–1017.
Review of David Taylor, Hooligans, Harlots, and Hangmen: Crime and Punishment in Victorian Britain in the Journal of Social History 45, no. 1 (2011): 310–312.
Review of Lisa Rosner, The Anatomy Murders in the Journal of British Studies 49 (2010): 919–921.
Review of Shani D’Cruze and Louise Jackson, Women, Crime and Justice in England since 1660 in the Economic History Review 63, no. 3 (2010): 814–815.
Review of Pieter Spierenburg, A History of Murder: Personal Violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present in the Journal of Social History 44, no. 1 (2010): 288–290.
Review essay on Anne-Marie Kilday, Women and Violent Crime in Enlightenment Scotland and Gregory Durston, Victims and Viragos: Metropolitan Women, Crime and the Eighteenth-Century Justice System in the Journal of Social History 43, no. 4 (2010): 1086–1090.
Review of Richard Mc Mahon, ed., Crime, Law and Popular Culture in Europe, 1500-1900 in the Economic History Review 62, no. 2 (2009): 496–497.
Review of Gregory Hanlon, Human Nature in Rural Tuscany: An Early Modern History in Cultural and Social History 6, no. 1 (2009): 122–124.
Review of Dan Vyleta, Crime, Jews and News, Vienna 1895-1914 in Cultural and Social History 5, no. 2 (2008): 253–255.
“Recent work on Elias and Violence: History, Evolutionary Psychology and Literature”, Figurations 28 (December 2007): 6–8.
Review of Stephen Kern, A Cultural History of Causality: Science, Murder Novels and Systems of Thought in Cultural and Social History 4, no. 4 (2007): 588–589.
Review of Clive Emsley, Hard Men: Violence in England since 1750 in the Journal of Social History 40, no. 3 (2007): 766–768.
Review of Jennine Hurl-Eamon, Gender and Petty Violence in London, 1680-1720 in the Journal of Social History 40, no. 2 (2006): 508–510.
Review of Martin Wiener, Men of Blood: Violence, Manliness and Criminal Justice in Victorian England in the Journal of Social History 39, no. 1 (2005): 266–268.
Review of Jeannie Duckworth, Fagin’s Children in Albion 36, no. 2 (2004): 309–311.
Review essay on Haia Shpayer-Makov, The Making of a Policeman: A Social History of a Labour Force in Metropolitan London, 1829-1914 and David Taylor, Policing the Victorian Town: The Development of the Police in Middlesbrough, c. 1840-1914 in the Journal of Victorian Culture 9, no. 1 (2004): 128–133.
Review of Louis A. Knafla, ed., Policing and War in Europe, in Albion 35, no. 3 (2003): 511–513.
Review of Thomas W. Gallant, Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity and Power in the British Mediterranean in the Journal of Social History 37, no. 1 (2003): 242–244.
Review of Shani D’Cruze, ed., Everyday Violence in Britain 1850-1950: Gender and Class in the Journal of Social History 36, no. 3 (2003): 813–815.
Review of Julius R. Ruff, Violence in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800 in the Journal of Social History 36, no. 2 (2002): 479–481.