Mary Dorothy George

From the disease infected rookeries and teeming vice-ridden streets to the sweatshops, coffee houses and spacious parks, George's recreation of a capital city in a dirty, brutal—but also elegant—age has never been surpassed. Both a social history and an impeccably documented reference work, her book chronicles the change in social attitudes between 1700 and 1800, which left London cleaner, healthier and more ordered.