Tocqueville’s Moderate Penal Reform

Emily Katherine Ferkaluk author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Published:24th Jan '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Tocqueville’s Moderate Penal Reform cover

This book presents an interpretive analysis of the major themes and purpose of Alexis de Tocqueville’s and Gustave de Beaumont’s first work, On the Penitentiary System, thereby offering new insights into Tocqueville as a moderate liberal statesman. The book explores Tocqueville’s thinking on penitentiaries as the best possible solution to recidivism, his approach to colonial imperialism, and his arguments on moral reformation of prisoners through a close reading of Tocqueville’s first published text. The unifying political concept of all three discussions is Tocqueville’s underlying concern to pursue moderation between institutional and imaginative extremes in order to maintain liberal values. In both thinking moderately and advocating for moderate political action, Tocqueville’s On the Penitentiary System renews an emphasis on the importance of civic engagement and the balance between philosophy and praxis. 

“Ferkaluk (Cedarville Univ.) offers an important new contribution to the ever-growing field of Tocqueville studies. … She discovers that Tocqueville’s political theory shines through the text in unexpected ways and that the book offers important lessons to contemporary liberal democracy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” (E. C. Sands, Choice, Vol. 56 (2), October, 2018)

ISBN: 9783030092696

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 454g

191 pages

Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018