An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America

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Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction: Through a Mirror, Darkly -- Chapter 1 Origins and Organs -- Chapter 2 Transatlantic Societies and Skulls -- Chapter 3 Phrenology on Trial -- Chapter 4 The Prison as Laboratory -- Chapter 5 Policing the Self and the Stranger -- Chapter 6 A Vic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Thompson, Courtney E. (Author)
Format: Electronic Book
Language:English
Published: New Brunswick, NJ Rutgers University Press [2021]
In:Year: 2021
Online Access: Cover (Verlag)
Cover (Verlag)
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Keywords:
Criminal anthropology > United States > History > 19th century
Criminal Psychology > United States > History > 19th century
Criminology > United States > History > 19th century
Phrenology > United States > History > 19th century
MEDICAL / General
Health, Medicine, Medical Studies, Health Studies, Crime, Violence, Phrenology, 19th Century, United States, Courts, Life, Culture, Law, Prisons, Trial, Research, Criminality
USA > Kraniologie > Kriminalität > Geschichte
eBook-DeGruyter-EBS-2021-2022
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction: Through a Mirror, Darkly -- Chapter 1 Origins and Organs -- Chapter 2 Transatlantic Societies and Skulls -- Chapter 3 Phrenology on Trial -- Chapter 4 The Prison as Laboratory -- Chapter 5 Policing the Self and the Stranger -- Chapter 6 A Victory for Phrenology? -- Epilogue: Phrenological Futures -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author
An Organ of Murder explores the origins of both popular and elite theories of criminality in the nineteenth-century United States, focusing in particular on the influence of phrenology. In the United States, phrenology shaped the production of medico-legal knowledge around crime, the treatment of the criminal within prisons and in public discourse, and sociocultural expectations about the causes of crime. The criminal was phrenology’s ideal research and demonstration subject, and the courtroom and the prison were essential spaces for the staging of scientific expertise. In particular, phrenology constructed ways of looking as well as a language for identifying, understanding, and analyzing criminals and their actions. This work traces the long-lasting influence of phrenological visual culture and language in American culture, law, and medicine, as well as the practical uses of phrenology in courts, prisons, and daily life
Physical Description:1 Online-Ressource (248 p), 18 b-w images
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9781978813106
DOI:10.36019/9781978813106
Access:Restricted Access