The Fabrication of Virtue

By Robin Evans,

Book cover of The Fabrication of Virtue: English Prison Architecture, 1750-1840

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…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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.

Want books like The Fabrication of Virtue?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 47 books like The Fabrication of Virtue.

Browse books like The Fabrication of Virtue

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in prison, presidential biography, and prisoners?

11,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about prison, presidential biography, and prisoners.

Prison Explore 44 books about prison
Presidential Biography Explore 19 books about presidential biography
Prisoners Explore 97 books about prisoners