Description
Book SynopsisMark Knights offers the first overview of Britain's history of corruption in office in the pre-modern era, 1600-1850. Drawing on extensive archival material, Knights shows how corruption in the domestic and imperial spheres interacted, and how the concept of corruption developed during this period, changing British ideas of trust and distrust.
Trade ReviewNo historian of this long period can afford to ignore the book and it will certainly appeal to a large readership not only among historians of Britain and its empire but among political scientists more generally. * Paul Slack, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern Social History, Linacre College, University of Oxford *
The scholarship on display here is remarkable ... [a] superb study * Ian Cawood, Times Literary Supplement *
Knights's achievement is to set the attack on 'Old Corruption' in a much longer timeframe and a more interesting framework than the conventional view * Prof Jonathan Parry (Cambridge), London Review of Books 15 Jan 2022 *
Table of Contents1: Introduction 2: Indian Civil Servants 3: Conceptualising Office 4: Conceptualising Corruption 5: Trust, Standards of Public Office, and Corruption 6: Interest and Disinterestedness 7: Public Money, Public Accounts, and Accountability 8: Informal Accountability 9: Freedom of the Press and Anti-Corruption 10: The Politics of Anti-Corruption 11: Sale of Office 12: Gifts and Informal Profits of Office 13: Conclusion 14: Policy Implications
