Publisher's Synopsis
"By a Flash and a Scare" illuminates the darker side of rural life in the 19th century. Flashpoints such as the Swing Riots have long attracted the attention of historians, but here John Archer focuses on the persistent war waged in the countryside, analyzing the prevailing climate of unrest, discontent, and desperation.;Based on research among the local records of Norfolk and Suffolk, the book identifies and examines the three most serious crimes of protest in the countryside - arson, animal maiming, and poaching. It argues that rural society in East Anglia was shaped by terror and oppression in equal measure, and that crime and protest were an integral part of the ordinary life of the rural poor.
