Description
Book SynopsisWhat made some 700 men and women in the Yorkshire town of Kingston-upon-Hull in the years 1837 to 1900 take their lives? This book attempts to answer this question and also to study how suicide was understood by victims, families, and friends; how the causes of suicide changed over time; and what coroners' inquests can tell us about Victorian life, beliefs, and values in general.
Trade Review"This is a model study in which Victor Bailey successfully rescues a hitherto unheard group of Victorians from their historical isolation." --
Albion"...Bailey not only gives us a 'thick description' of why and how suicide occured, but he also attempts to explain and analize how social forces are represented in the many individual experiences that he unearths." --
Social History"Bailey's growing reputation rests upon in-depth research, forensic skill, and an enviable ability to present his findings in a cogent and engaging manner. . . . This is a brilliant, balanced, and original study that enlarges our understanding of the sociology of suicide and adds enormously to the historical study of self-destruction. It is a magnificent achievement." --
English Historical Review"
This Rash Act" is an excellent study of a highly complex subject." --
Victorian Studies"This is a splendid book: in many ways it is a model for how a sophisticated social history might be written at the end of the twentieth century. . . . This remarkable book ends up by offering original and well-grounded insights into a range of issues form the administration of justice to personal narratives of shame and collective beliefs about the destiny of the soul." --
Journal of Social HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Suicide and the Social Historian: 1. Durkeim and beyond; Part II. Interpreting the Coroners' Inquest: 2. 'Crowner's quest law'; 3. Suicide verdicts; Part III. The Urban Life Cycle: 4. The urban life cycle in Victorian England; 5. Kingston upon Hull: economy, society, ecology; Part IV. Statistics: 6. The incidence of suicide; Part V. Suicide Across the Life Cycle: 7. Early-life transitions; 8. The prime of life; 9. Early old age; 10. Late old age; Epilogue: Durkheim redivvius; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
