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Book ID: CBB576199907

An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America (2021)

Thompson, Courtney Elizabeth (Author)

Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 2021
Language: English

ISBN: 9781978813076

Publication Date: 2021
Physical Details: 278

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Psychology Medicine and culture Authority of medicine Medicine and law Forensic medicine Criminal law Violence Crime Phrenology 19th century United States

An Organ of Murder explores the origins of both popular and elite theories of criminality in the nineteenth-century United States, focusing in particular on the influence of phrenology. In the United States, phrenology shaped the production of medico-legal knowledge around crime, the treatment of the criminal within prisons and in public discourse, and sociocultural expectations about the causes of crime. The criminal was phrenology’s ideal research and demonstration subject, and the courtroom and the prison were essential spaces for the staging of scientific expertise. In particular, phrenology constructed ways of looking as well as a language for identifying, understanding, and analyzing criminals and their actions. This work traces the long-lasting influence of phrenological visual culture and language in American culture, law, and medicine, as well as the practical uses of phrenology in courts, prisons, and daily life.

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Reviewed By

Review Erica Lilleleht (2022) Review of "An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (pp. 352-354). unapi

Review Stanley Finger (2021) Review of "An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (pp. 329-331). unapi

Review Nancy Tomes (2021) Review of "An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 472-474). unapi

Review Susanna L. Blumenthal (2022) Review of "An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 666-667). unapi

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