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An account of a phrenological lecture tour containing detailed information on nineteenth-century American society, first published in 1841.
Men have often been regarded as the constant against which women's evolution has been charted. In particular, the model of patriarchal society has found an established, but not unchallenged, position in the literature. There is now a growing debate concerning the roles of men, masculinity and sexual politics and the complexities and contradictions of these concepts. The materials presented here will help to fuel the debate and will enable scholars to analyse such stereotypes as the cad, the weakling, the sadist, the cross-dresser, the lothario, the lady's man, the brute and the gentleman.
Finalist for the 2022 Cheiron Book Prize 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.