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A Just Measure of Pain: The Penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850
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1979
Year
New ConceptionColonialismClassical SociologyHistorical SociologyJust MeasureEconomic HistoryModern PenitentiaryMedical HistoryLanguage StudiesWorking ConditionsPenologyClass ConflictPunishmentCritical TheoryIndustrial RevolutionCriminal JusticeHumanitiesWorld Economic HistoryBusiness HistoryLegal HistoryBusinessCarceral SettingAbolitionismInjusticeModernity
The book examines the birth of the modern penitentiary in 18th‑century England and its ambiguous legacy, establishing a classic social‑history narrative. The Penguin edition includes an afterword that discusses the polemics that arose after the book’s 1978 publication. The author depicts the transition from physical punishments such as whipping, branding, and gallows to moral management and rehabilitation of the criminal poor. The study documents a shift toward a new conception of class relations and a philosophy of punishment aimed at the mind rather than the body.
Subtitled The Penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution 1750-1850, A Just Measure of Pain describes the moment in 18th century England when the modern penitentiary and its ambiguous legacy were born. In depicting how the whip, the brand and the gallows - public punishments once meant to cow the unruly poor into passivity - came to be replaced by the moral management of the prison and the notion that the criminal poor should be involved in their own rehabilitation. Michael Ignatieff documents the rise of a new conception of class relations and with it a new philosophy of punishment, one directed not at the body but at the mind. A Just Measure of Pain is a highly atmospheric and compellingly written work of social history, which has already become a classic study of its subject. For the Penguin edition the author will provide an afterword concerning the polemics which followed the book's first publication in 1978.