Personal Identity in the Modern World: A Society of Strangers

In a society of strangers, there develops what can be called crimes of mobility -- forms of criminality rare in traditional societies: bigamy, the confidence game, and blackmail, for example. What they have in common is a kind of fraudulent role-playing, which the new society makes possible. This book explores the social and legal consequences of social and geographical mobility in the United States and Great Britain from the beginning of the 19th century on. Personal identity became more fluid. Lines between classes blurred. Impostors abound.

Lawrence M. Friedman is the Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford University. He is a leading historian of American law, and a leading scholar associated with the law and society movement. He is the author or editor of more than 30 books on these subjects.