1st Edition
Crime and Culture An Historical Perspective
Scholarly interest in the history of crime has grown dramatically in recent years and, because scholars associated with this work have relied on a broad social definition of crime which includes acts that are against the law as well as acts of social banditry and political rebellion, crime history has become a major aspect not only of social history, but also of cultural as well as legal studies. This collection explores how the history of crime provides a way to study time, place and culture. Adopting an international and interdisciplinary perspective to investigate the historical discourses of crime in Europe and the United States from the sixteenth to the late twentieth century, these original works provide new approaches to understanding the meaning of crime in modern western culture and underscore the new importance given to crime and criminal events in historical studies. Written by both well-known historians and younger scholars from across the globe, the essays reveal that there are important continuities in the history of crime and its representations in modern culture, despite particularities of time and place.
Biography
Amy Gilman Srebnick is Doctor and Professor of History at Montclair State University in New Jersey, USA. Dr Rene Levy is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France.
'…these scholars attain a deeper understanding of the place of crime and criminal justice in Western politics and culture. A landmark in the development of a more sophisticated history of crime.'
Martin Wiener, Rice University, USA'…a book with a wonderful range of contributors, countries and eras. Srebnick's introduction is invaluable…The studies which follow are so varied in style and story as to keep any reader eager for more.'
Eric Monkkonen, University of California, Los Angeles, USA'…new and fascinating approaches to narratives about crime…a fine lesson in historical scepticism, this important book breathes fresh air into the mystery of memory and provides a large fund of marvellous stories about bandits or highwaymen turned into mythical heroes by popular, local, or even national narratives.'
Robert Muchembled, University of Paris-Nord, France'…Srebnick's and Lévy's contributors offer new approaches to understanding the meaning of crime in modern Western culture and conclude that there are important continuities in the history of crime and its representations in modern culture, despite particularities of time and place.'
Law and Social Inquiry'The reader expects me to write nothing but a positive review of this collection, which has several long-time colleagues among its contributors. Lluckily, I don't have to be insincere. Indeed, something would be substantially wrong with the field of crime history if a number of its principal practitioners produced a bad book together.'
Crime, Histoire et Sociétés
