Castles of Our Conscience - Hardcover

Staples

9780813516264: Castles of Our Conscience

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813516269 ISBN 13: 9780813516264

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 1990

William G. Staples presents a new and distinctive analysis of the role of the modern state in the shaping of policies of social control. He provides a theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms of state policymaking and capacity. This framework supports an interpretation of the changing nature of institutions of social control in the United States from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. A distinctive feature of Staples's approach is his critique of existing theories of the state, as well as recent revisionist writings in the field of social control. Both, he argues, have tended to either reduce the state to an instrument of class power or treat it in too "structural" a manner. Developing a sophisticated account of the relationship between the state and civil society, the author provides a history of social control policies in the United States that balances analytical concerns with historical narrative.

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About the Author:

Bill Staples grew up on the south shore of Long Island, New York. He has been a commercial fisherman, taxicab driver, plumber′s apprentice, and pizza maker. He studied sociology at the University of Oregon, the University of Southern California, and UCLA. Staples is currently the 2013–14 E. Jackson Baur Professor of Sociology and founding Director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center at the University of Kansas. In addition to the first edition of EVERYDAY SURVEILLANCE his previous books include CASTLES OF OUR CONSCIENCE: SOCIAL CONTROL AND THE AMERICAN STATE, 1800–1985, a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, POWER, PROFITS, AND PATRIARCHY: THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF WORK AT A BRITISH METAL TRADES FIRM, 1791–1922 (with C. L. Staples), an American Sociological Association Book Award winner as well as and the two–volume reference work, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRIVACY, also a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

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