Governing Morals

This book is a broad-ranging history of moral regulation focusing on Britain and the US.

Focusing on Britain and the US, this broad-ranging history of moral regulation spans three centuries. It includes discussions of specific moral regulation movements, class analysis and a Foucaultian analysis of the intimate link between the 'governance of others' and the 'governance of the self'.This evocative and broad-ranging book traces the history of moral regulation in Britain and the US from the late seventeenth century to the present day. Specific coverage is given to movements such as the Society for the Reformation of Manners and the Vice Society, the sexual abuse and anti-pornography movements, and contemporary self-help movements. Hunt argues that the main impetus for moral regulations often stems from the middle classes, rather than those with institutional power, but most significantly they provide classic instances of the intimate link between the 'governance of others' and the 'governance of the self'. Using the work of Foucault, this book analyses how projects of self-regulation can manifest themselves into the regulation of others. Concurrent with this is the rise of health discourses, which play a central role in contemporary discussions of moral governance.