The Figure of the Crowd in Early Modern London examines the cultural
phenomenon of the urban crowd in the context of early modern London's
population crisis. The book explores the crowd's double function as a
symbol of the city's growth and as the necessary context for the public
performance of urban culture. Its central argument is that the figure of
the crowd acts as a supplement to the symbolic space of the city, at
once providing a tangible referent for urban meaning and threatening the
legibility of that meaning through its motive force and uncontrollable
energy.