The Fabrication of Virtue
Book description
First published in 1982, this book describes a new kind of prison architecture that developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book concentrates on architecture, but places it in the context of contemporary penal practice and contemporary thought. Beginning with an exploration on the eighteenth-century prisons before…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Fabrication of Virtue as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Many of Howard’s prescriptions for prison reform focused on the physical plant. His favorite prison architect, William Blackburn, translated Howard’s reform principles into brick and mortar.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon” presented a far different and more insidious vision of a circular prison in which each inmate was under the constant surveillance of a guard posted in a central viewing station.
Robin Evans’s gorgeous photographs of the centuries-old remnants of this wave of prison building and prison reform embellish the story told by Howard and Ignatieff.
From George's list on profound books on the history of the penitentiary and of its hopes and disappointments.
Want books like The Fabrication of Virtue?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 47 books like The Fabrication of Virtue.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,188
readers submitted
so far, will you?
