Invisible Men – The Secret Lives of Police Constables in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, 1900–1939

Invisible Men is the most comprehensive study to date of the lives and work of English police constables on foot patrol in the early part of the twentieth century. Joanne Klein has plumbed previously unstudied archives of police departments in Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool to offer a fascinating insider’s view of the working-class men charged with protecting the citizens of these rapidly growing cities during a period of great change in both the life of the city and the nature of police methods and training. 

“This is an excellent book. It is well-written and extremely interesting, filling a gap in a historical literature which is dominated by official and institutional perspectives, by illuminating the daily and working lives of constables.”—Lucinda McCray Beier, Appalachian State University