Organ of Murder - Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America

An Organ of Murder explores the origins of both popular and elite theories of criminality in the nineteenth-century United States. This work traces the long-lasting influence of phrenological visual culture and language in America, as well as the practical uses of phrenology in courts, prisons, and daily life.

List of contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments 
Introduction    Through a Mirror, Darkly
1                      Origins and Organs     
2                      Transatlantic Societies and Skulls
3                      Phrenology on Trial
4                      The Prison as Laboratory
5                      Policing the Self and the Stranger 
6                      A Victory for Phrenology?     
Epilogue          Phrenological Futures             
Notes
Bibliography
Inde

About the author

COURTNEY E. THOMPSON is an assistant professor of the history of science and medicine and U.S. women’s history at Mississippi State University in Starkville. She received her Ph.D. from the program in the history of science and medicine of Yale University in 2015.

Summary

Explores the origins of both popular and elite theories of criminality in the nineteenth-century US, focusing in particular on the influence of phrenology. This work traces the influence of phrenological visual culture and language in culture, law, and medicine, as well as the practical uses of phrenology in courts, prisons, and daily life.

Product details

• Authors: Courtney E Thompson, Courtney E. Thompson
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2021
• EAN: 9781978813076
• ISBN: 978-1-978813-07-6
• No. of pages: 278
• Series: Critical Issues in Health and; Critical Issues in Health and Medicine Series; Critical Issues in Health and Medicine
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; Social sciences, law, business > Law > Criminal law, criminal procedural law, criminology