New from Yale University Press: Engines of Truth: Producing Veracity in the Victorian Courtroom by Wendie Ellen Schneider.About the book, from the publisher:
During the Victorian era, new laws allowed more witnesses to testify in court cases. At the same time, an emerging cultural emphasis on truth-telling drove the development of new ways of inhibiting perjury. Strikingly original and drawing on a broad array of archival research, Wendie Schneider’s examination of the Victorian courtroom charts this period of experimentation and how its innovations shaped contemporary trial procedure. Blending legal, social, and colonial history, she shines new light on cross-examination, the most enduring product of this time and the “greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.”Wendie Schneider teaches history at Iowa State University and is a member of the bar in Massachusetts.
--Marshal Zeringue
