The Big House
Image and Reality of the American Prison
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Published:27th Feb '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The complex and fascinating history of what it’s like “doing time” in the “Big House,” and its influence on the American imagination.
“The Big House" is America’s idea of the prison—a huge, tough, ostentatiously oppressive pile of rock, bristling with rules and punishments, overwhelming in size and the intent to intimidate. Stephen Cox tells the story of the American prison—its politics, its sex, its violence, its inability to control itself—and its idealization in American popular culture. This book investigates both the popular images of prison and the realities behind them: problems of control and discipline, maintenance and reform, power and sexuality. It conveys an awareness of the limits of human and institutional power, and of the symbolic and iconic qualities the “Big House” has attained in America’s understanding of itself.
ISBN: 9780300215083
Dimensions: 210mm x 140mm x 19mm
Weight: 327g
256 pages