'This book is quite simply groundbreaking at every turn. It is a 'must' for any social and cultural historian of early modern Europe.' Dr R. Scribner, Clare College, Cambridge 'This is not just a book which will be of value to historians of crime or historians of the Netherlands. It contains a wealth of material on, and ... Read moreinsight into, early modern marginal groups, the poor in general, and perceptions of these groups. It is social history at its most vivid.' Social History Society Bulletin 'One of the central topics in the history of crime, as distinct from the history of justice and punishment, is the question of the extent and nature of professional, organized crime; the question of whether there was a criminal 'underworld'. Florike Egmon's painstaking reconstruction of Dutch criminal bands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries sheds new light on this issue.' International Review of Social History Show Less