Murders and Madness
Medicine, Law, and Society in the Fin de Siècle
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:11th Jul '91
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£105.00(9780198229919)
Murders and Madness examines the French debate over crime and madness in the fin de siècle. Ruth Harris argues that psychiatric theories of human behaviour and new sociological interpretations of crime combined to undermine the traditional foundations of the penal system and helped to shape the new science of criminology. Traditional notions of free will and moral responsibility were eroded as new and often draconian strategies evolved from managerial practices developed mainly by medical men. This book offers a detailed examination of the radical politique criminelle they devised. Through a series of case studies, she looks specifically at discussions of feminine hysteria and women's sexuality; male alcoholism and racial degeneration; crimes of passion, crowd violence and revolutionary politics.
`a useful, compendious, suggestive, often sensitive book' Times Literary Supplement
`an intelligent and well-researched study' British Journal of Criminology
`Harris has written a useful, compendious, suggestive, often sensitive book.' Times Literary Supplement
'the book's painstaking analysis of dozens of cases from the Paris courts over the period 1880 to 1910 gives it an authoritative tone that will not easily be challenged' Medical History
'a meticulously researched study of medico-legal debates in nineteenth-century France' History Workshop Journal
`Harris has written a useful, compendious, suggestive, often sensitive book.' Times Literary Supplement
'the book's painstaking analysis of dozens of cases from the Paris courts over the period 1880 to 1910 gives it an authoritative tone that will not easily be challenged' Medical History
'a meticulously researched study of medico-legal debates in nineteenth-century France' History Workshop Journal
- Winner of Chapter 6, published originally in ^IHistory Workshop^R, won the Koren Prize for the best article on French history by a North American author for 1988.
ISBN: 9780198202592
Dimensions: 216mm x 138mm x 22mm
Weight: 484g
384 pages