Perceptions and Representations of Railways and Crime in Britain, 1820-1900

This thesis presents a new reading into how railways in Britain were represented and perceived in news media between 1820 and 1900. The ways in which newspapers and periodicals related railways with crime played a key role in shaping public attitudes towards them. However, when first invented and implemented, railways were condemned in news media in ways that were generally non-specific and which related primarily to their unfamiliarity, despite their being an important change for society. Over time, however, railway crime, and events perceived as criminal, became a way for people to voice their shock, disquiet, or anger about railways in general. Crime was, and is, often treated as a harbinger of or a trigger for social uncertainty, and railways were seen in the same way – they added instability, a connection often seized on in news media reporting. News media responses to railway crime followed phases which, while chronologically overlapping, were very much distinct, reflecting developments in the wider industry. The thesis traces the shift from the physical railway under construction, to the financial railway of the railway company, and then to railway travel in carriages. In doing so, it is the first study to fully assess the dynamics of these phases over the course of the nineteenth century through representations in crime reporting. Its mixed methods approach to news media charts the different stages in which the railways became normalised in Britain, and how negative associations with railways were important in this process. Its analysis ultimately informs broader questions of how societies react to and represent the new technologies that come to shape them.