Crimes That Made the Modern World: From the Tolpuddle Martyrs to Bernie Madoff

The degree to which criminal acts have shaped modern societies is explored by award-winning political journalist Ian Hernon. The outcome of some led to overdue reforms - the ‘crimes’ of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, for example, kick-started the trade union movement, while those of Reform rioters led to universal franchise and eventually to the welfare state. On the international stage, a grievous assault on a white woman led to a horrific massacre which in turn accelerated the process by which India gained independence and an empire crumbled; while in America the biggest mass lynching of innocents led eventually to Barak Obama in the White House. Elsewhere, criminal acts changed the world for the worse - the sinking of the Lusitania resurrected the concept of total warfare in which civilians are fair game, a brutal bank robbery gave birth to Stalinism, and a shambolic revolt spawned Nazism. Bringing the cycle up to date, he describes how white collar crime created modern cycles of recession. Ian Hernon tells those stories, and others, with the same flair he brought to his previous studies in social and military history over the last 200 turbulent years. Ian Hernon has been a journalist and a Parliamentary lobby correspondent since 1978. He is Deputy Editor of ‘The Tribune’. His previously published books of social and military history include: ‘Britain’s Forgotten Wars’, ‘Riot!’, ‘Assassin!’, ‘Fortress Britain’, ‘The Blair Decade’ and ‘Robert Tressell - A Life in Hell’. He has a wife, two daughters and three grandchildren, and lives in Kent.