Andrew, Donna T. 1944(?)-

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ANDREW, Donna T. 1944(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1944. Education: City College of New York, B.A., 1966; London School of Economics, M.Sc., 1967; University of Toronto, Ph.D., 1977.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—339 MacKinnon Building, Guelph, Ontario, Canada NIG 2W1. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, member of history and philosophy department faculty; Erindale College, Toronto, member of history department faculty and women's studies programme faculty, 1980-83; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, member of history department faculty, 1983-84; University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, professor of history, 1984—.

WRITINGS:

Philanthropy and Police: London Charity in the Century, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1989.

(Compiler) London Debating Societies, 1776-1799, London Record Society (London, England), 1994.

(With Randall McGowan) The Perreaus and Mrs.Rudd: Forgery and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century London, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2001.

Contributor to books, including Poverty, Philanthropy, and Social Reform, edited by H. Cunningham and J. Innes, Macmillan (London, England), 1998, and Law, Crime, and Society: England 1660-1830, edited by N. Landau, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Also contributor to numerous journals, including History and Journal of Ecclesiastical History.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Books on the history of gambling and the changing pattern of press advertisements in the eighteenth century.

SIDELIGHTS: Donna T. Andrew is a history professor at the University of Guelph and an author whose research interests and books focus on England and the history of London covering the period from 1680 to 1850. She has a special interest in the manners, morals, and class formation in England during this period. Although Andrew's books are primarily scholarly works written for historians, they also contain valuable insights for readers who are generally interested in the history of English culture and especially eighteenth-century attitudes about marriage, adultery, charity, and other social practices.

Andrew's first book, Philanthropy and Police: London Charity in the Eighteenth Century, focuses on the development of voluntary charities to help the poor in eighteenth-century London. Andrew discusses these charities in relation to the political, economic, and religious ideas of the time. She also reveals how these ideas resulted in the founding of various philanthropies and impacted both their successes and failures. The book provides insights into institutions such as Lock Hospital and its help for those suffering from venereal disease and the Magdalen Charity which focused its efforts on prostitutes who wanted to reform their lives. Andrew also delves into the effects of public opinion on charities, such as prejudices against certain segments of the population like prostitutes and those with sexually transmitted diseases. In the English Historical Review, John Cannon noted that the book "is carefully constructed, closely researched, beautifully written, and full of interest." Cannon also said, "Dr. Andrew shows balanced judgment, accepting that the motives of persons who support or administer charities will be various and mixed."

Andrew also coauthored The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd: Forgery and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century London with Randall McGowen, a professor of history at the University of Oregon. The book examines an infamous eighteenth-century forgery trial that encompassed scandal, deceit, blackmail, and mystery and held the general public fascinated as London newspapers related the sensational tale. In an article by Mary Dickieson on the University of Guelph Web site, Andrew explained she became interested in the story in the early 1990s while reading through old London newspapers on microfilm.

The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd tells the story of well-respected, upper-crust twin brothers Daniel and Robert Perreau and Margaret Rudd. The trio was arrested in 1775 for passing forged bonds. Rudd, Daniel Perreau's mistress, later insisted that the Perreau brothers forced her into the scheme, with Daniel Perreau actually holding a knife to her throat as she forged the documents. The brothers, however, claimed that the scheme was masterminded by Rudd. Because of the well-to-do defendants and the sordidness of their mutual betrayals, the London press recognized the story's titillating qualities. The tale so enthralled the public that its only rival at the time were accounts of the ongoing threat of a rebellion in the Americas. In many ways the case was a forerunner of such modern media-hyped cases as the O. J. Simpson trial of the 1990s. Also similar to some modern high-profile cases, all of the defendants spoke out in the press, claiming their innocence. In their book, the authors note that "the papers helped to produce a new genre, the sensational criminal trial." Eventually, the brothers were found guilty and hanged, while Rudd, who many believed was a femme fatale and as guilty if not more guilty than the brothers, walked away free.

Although an interesting story in and of itself, the case gains relevance due to the authors' exploration of the influence of the case on the various social beliefs and practices of the time, as well as the role of the press and its increasing power in the eighteenth century. In the London Review of Books contributor Dror Wharman noted that the authors "situate the story in its wider contemporary setting. Indeed, it is only against the backdrop of the peculiarities of metropolitan society in the second half of the 18th century that we can begin to understand how and why this story captured people's imaginations and attention to the extent it did."

A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Andrew and McGowan "careful researchers" who "do a good job of elucidating the social history of the time," but he ultimately found The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd a "bloodless exposition" and "a bitter chore to read." Other reviewers, however, had high praise for the book. Nigel Tappin, writing in the Library Journal, noted that the authors "present a readable meticulous study that offers insights in women's status, law, economy, and society; the work has some mass appeal." A reviewer writing in Publishers Weekly said, "the authors have created a first-rate work of historical research, one that will certainly appeal to those interested in either the history of law or the development of public and media fascination with scandal."

It took Andrew and McGowan ten years and five complete drafts to finish The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd. "We wanted to write in a compelling way to capture the larger-than-life influence of the story, but it was very important to us to ensure historical accuracy," Andrew told Dickieson for the University of Guelph Web site article. Andrew says she also left notebooks full of information, largely based on gossip, out of the book. As for the writing partnership itself, Andrew noted, "It's not like marriage where you can agree to disagree. You can't do that when you're writing a history book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

English Historical Review, July, 1993, John Cannon, review of Philanthropy and Police: London Charity in the Eighteenth Century, p. 726.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2001, review of The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd, p. 1078.

Library Journal, October 1, 2001, Nigel Tappin, review of The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd, p. 118; August 6, 2001, review of The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd, p. 69.

London Review of Books, June 6, 2002, Dror Wharman, "Beware of Counterfeits," pp. 26-27.

Spectator, December 8, 2001, David Nokes, review of The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd, p. 45.