Rawlings, Philip, Policing: A Short History. Willan Publishing (Policing and Society Series), Devon, 2002, 274 pp. ISBN 1 903240 26 3

Assimilating recent writing on police history and re-presenting it intelligibly is a bold enterprise. The author, a member of Warwick University Law School, has an established record of eclectic summary in relation to the history of prisons and criminal justice. The formidable bibliography listed in the current work indicates both how far academic interest in policing has grown in the last 40 years, and explains the opportunity accordingly available for the work of stock-taking represented by...