Engines of truth : producing veracity in the Victorian courtroom Wendie Ellen Schneider

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Contents: The rise and fall of perjury prosecutions -- The gentlemanly art of cross-examination -- Perjury and prevarication in British India -- The queen's proctor : an inquisitorial experiment -- Adultery, sex offenses, and the Criminal Evidence Act of 1898
Summary: 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."