Moral Problems in American Life

Moral Problems in American Life
Author: Karen Halttunen
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801483509

This volume surveys the moral landscape of the American past from slavery to the Vietnam War. The 14 contributing historians illuminate this critical dimension of American history, showing how historical study contributes to present-day debates about values and the moral life.

Prisons, Asylums, and the Public

Prisons, Asylums, and the Public
Author: Janet Miron
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2011-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442661623

The prisons and asylums of Canada and the United States were a popular destination for institutional tourists in the nineteenth-century. Thousands of visitors entered their walls, recording and describing the interiors, inmates, and therapeutic and reformative practices they encountered in letters, diaries, and articles. Surprisingly, the vast majority of these visitors were not members of the medical or legal elite but were ordinary people. Prisons, Asylums, and the Public argues that, rather than existing in isolation, these institutions were closely connected to the communities beyond their walls. Challenging traditional interpretations of public visiting, Janet Miron examines the implications and imperatives of visiting from the perspectives of officials, the public, and the institutionalized. Finding that institutions could be important centres of civic activity, self-edification, and 'scientific' study, Prisons, Asylums, and the Public sheds new light on popular nineteenth-century attitudes towards the insane and the criminal.