The Origins of the Vigilant State: The London Metropolitan Police Special Branch before the First World War

Abstract

'This vividly written, fascinating study will be essential reading not only for historians of the British state, but to anyone concerned to understand the origins of contemporary policing problems.' NEW SOCIETY The origins of the London Metropolitan Police Special Branch are shrouded in secrecy; its establishment took place against a background of fierce opposition to any kind of political force in Britain. This is the first book to seek to probe beneath that secrecy and examine the origins, methods and achievements of the Special Branch. It will be of interest to everyone concerned with the growth of today's 'secret state'.(Originally published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1987)

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 68 citations exist upstream.