The Spectacle of Security
Lock-Picking Competitions and the Security Industry in mid-Victorian Britain
Datos Bibliográficos
| ID | 4494887 |
|---|---|
| Autores | David Churchill (0000-0001-6930-2021, University of Leeds, autor de correspondencia) |
| Año | 2015 |
| Volumen | 80 |
| Número | 1 |
| Páginas | 52-74 |
| Fecha de publicación | 2015-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sí |
| Open Access | No |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Revista | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores de la revista | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Editorial | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbv018 |
| OpenAlex | W2104811734 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Citas recibidas | 4 |
| Referencias citadas | 18 |
Despite decades of research on the history of crime, policing and punishment, historical work on security remains in its infancy. This article contributes a detailed analysis of a series of celebrated lock-picking competitions involving rival brand-name locksmiths in mid nineteenth-century Britain. These contests provided a spectacular forum for marketing new security commodities, promising to serve as a uniquely credible means of demonstrating the utility of these technically advanced products. In practice, the competitions were less effective in improving security-product design, or in reinforcing consumer confidence in security devices, than many firms and observers had hoped. Nonetheless, the competitions captured the imagination of a mid-Victorian public increasingly preoccupied by the transformative potential of technology, and by the emerging landscape of international economic competition. In particular, this article argues that lock-picking contests played a significant role in the commodification of security and the emergence of the security industry in the 1850s and 1860s. It thus subjects to critical scrutiny these important aspects of modern social development, which have left a lasting and troubling imprint on the contemporary world.
Commodification · Competition (biology) · Economics · Economy · Lock (firearm) · Political science · Scrutiny · Sociology · Spectacle · Transformative learning · American History and Culture · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law
Property Crime in London, 1850–Present
The Great Victorian Boom 1850–1873
English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850–1980
Critique of Security
English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850-1980
Citizenship and consumption
Reappraising Victorian Literacy through Prison Records
Securing the Englishman's Castle
Przestępca zawodowy
The Genesis of American Engineering Competition, 1850-1870
Privacy, Publicity, and Reputation
Forgotten Heroes and Forgotten Issues”
Burglary Insurance and the Culture of Fear in Britain, C. 1889–1939
The Banality of Security
Manufacturing nature
The Patent System and Inventive Activity during the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1852
New perspectives on the history of products, firms, marketing, and consumers in Britain and the United States since the mid-nineteenth century 1
Advertising consumer goods in nineteenth-centuary Britain
| Obras citantes distintas | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citas por año | 0,4 |
| Intervalo de citas | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Velocidad de citación | current |
| Altamente citado | No |
| Tipos de cita | Neutras: 3 |