How to Find Out Information About a Certain Era in History

¶ … Angels Fear: A Historical Mystery What were the clothes like in 1811? Sebastian has a curricle.

What were modes of transportation like in London in 1811? What was law enforcement like at this time? How did the different religious personages interact with society? How different were the streets of London in 1811 from today? What sorts of productions were put on at the theater? How did the sexes typically mingle (were there social taboos about men and women, single or married, being seen in public together? What was the class hierarchy like in 1811 in England? How common were murders in London in 1811? Was dueling with pistols legal in 1811? This question might be answered by consulting a fashion era database -- something like Victoriana Magazine, which describes fashion and accessories of the Regency Era on its website.

The site provides picture drawings of men's and women's fashion which appear to come from advertisements of that time. This site gives a good view of what fashion looked like back then. As for proper descriptions of clothing, another good site is VintageVictorian.com, which gives explanations as well as descriptions of how clothing was worn. Books like Tozer's Fabric of Society: A Century of People and their Clothes: 1770-1870 can be a great help too.

Q2: Googling "carriages in Regency times" provides a good place to start on the Internet for researching this question. One can examine a host of different essays, websites, and historical data gleaned from books and magazines that provide insight into what transportation was like during the Regency Era. Q3: Books like The Regency Underworld and An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England by Donald Low and Venetia Murray respectively shed some light on what law enforcement was like during this time.

Sometimes books like this are the best way to really get a sense of how order was kept in a certain period in history. Q4: Religion in London at this time could best be understood by studying England's religious history from the Protestant Reformation onwards. This could be performed by Googling the subject or by reading about it in books like High Society.

Q5: Studying maps found in museums or visiting websites that discuss the change of London's streets over the years could be helpful in understanding how the make-up of the city has changed and what has stayed the same. Also online virtual tours of the city could give one an actual sense of the history of the city -- and documentaries from the library could too.

Q6: Knowing a history of the theater in London at this time could be gotten from visiting a university library and/or consulting with a lecturer or teacher of 18th-19th century English drama. This could be an excellent source of information and very trustworthy. Q7: Social taboos in the Regency Era and before would be evident in other books written at that time.

For instance, one could read the books of Jane Austen as well as other authors of that era for instruction on how the sexes interacted and what was considered "off limits." Q8: For class hierarchy, again researchers like Murray whose High Society would be.