Gypsies: An English History Paperback – 23 July 2020

Great read the research that went in to this is staggering.

Good to be able to download it. My husband is finding it a very interesting read

Hard to get into

The book comprises ten chapters, a bibliography and pictures. Chapters cover: origins, Tudor gypsies, counterfeits, Stuart gypsies, 18th century gypsies, reformers in the 19th century, Victorian gypsies, travels and troubles today, and lives and livelihoods. It is a most impressive work.Our attitude towards gypsies tends to be a mix of suspicion, dislike and fascination. They are seen at times to be troublesome and infuriating. Over centuries we have not known what to do with them. They do not fit into the social mainstream. They defied all efforts to reform them or indeed to understand them.The aim of this engaging saccount is to bring them out of the shadows and illuminate their life from the early 16th century to the present. The author focuses on their interactions with the state and society. He examines why they are regarded as an almost alien body that fuels fear and hatred. Their history is truly fascinating, it is time we studied it.This is a balanced account that shows how gypsies have been vilified and idealised. Their itinerancy and fecklessness are analysed by Cressy. He reveals how Tudor laws were more harsh against gypsies than witches. They were harassed and arrested for vagrancy. Prejudice existed alongside accommodation and toleration. The origin of their name, links with India and description as Roma are explained. They have only been called Travellers in recent times. Today. they dislike the name gypsy and Roma.The book is based on decades of teaching and research on English social history. Cressy is concerned to locate gypsies within the historical experience of the English. He asks a series of questions such as : were early modern gypsies an ethnic group? how did people consider them in terms of their status or activity? What can be learned about their culture and language? And in what way were they different from other itinerants?Gypsies have always been outsiders. Cressy who has gypsie ancestors has written an outstanding book of social history. He reveals details that are astonishing not only about gypsies but also about English society over the past 600 years. For example, he reveals that Romanticism altered the image of gypsies.This is demonstrated in the novels of Walter Scott, and Emily Bronte. Bizet glamourised them in Carmen. Nonetheless, they remain a mystery. Some 500,000 were murdered in the Holocaust.The European Council has decreed the word gypsy must no longer be used. Roma and Traveller are still permissible. I am delighted that the author has ignored such PC nonsense.This is the work of a true scholar. It will rank as one of the best books of 2018.O

Very interesting subject, well researched and well written