Cultures of shame : exploring crime and morality in Britain 1600-1900 / David Nash, Anne-Marie Kilday.

Houndmills, Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

ix, 244 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

The history and theory of shame, then and now -- Private passions and public penance: popular shaming rituals in pre-modern Britain -- The shame and fame of 'Half-Hangit Maggie': attitudes to the child murderer in early modern Scotland -- 'To make men of their honesty afraid': shaming the ideological dissident 1650-1834 -- Conservatives, humanitarians, and reformers debate shame -- The everyday life of a Wexford parson: the Rev. William Hughes' taste for drink, blasphemy, indecent exposure, criminal damage, bestial voyeurism and field sports -- 'The woman in the iron mask': from low life picaresque to bourgeois tragedy, matrimonial violence and the audiences of shame -- Writing 'cuckold on the forehead of a dozen husbands': mid-Victorian monarchy and the construction of bourgeois shame -- Conclusion: reconciling shame with modernity.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-238) and index.