Description
Book SynopsisThe story of how first-generation Americans coupled their legacy of liberty with a penal philosophy that promoted patriarchy, especially for marginal Americans. How did classical liberalism aid in the development of such expansive penal practices in the wake of the War of Independence?
Trade ReviewThis is a valuable book for those wishing to familiarize themselves with the scholarship on prison reform in the nineteenth-century United States. * Men and Masculinities *
This work will take its place among the growing corpus of important studies that examine patriarchy and societys need to punish its criminals in ways it paradoxically deemed more enlightened and humanitarian than in times past. Kahn uses substantial primary and secondary material. . . . Recommended. * Choice *
Mark E. Kannhas written a fascinating, thought-provoking, and timely political-historical study of penal thought and practice in the formative years of the United States. * American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Part I Punishment1 Justi?cations for Punishment2 Purposes of Punishment 3 Targets of Punishment Part II Prisons4 Benjamin Rush: Patriarch of Penal Reform 5 The Case against Traditional Punishments 6 Penitentiary Punishment 7 Prison Discipline and Prison Patriarchs 8 Disenchantment 9 Warehousing Marginal Americans Part III Patriarchy10 Concealing Punishment 11 Stretching Patriarchal Political Power Conclusion: Liberty and Power Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
