Overview

This text poses the question why Americans, beginning in the 1820s and 1830s, simultaneously and confidently constructed prisons, insane asylums, reformatories and almshouses to confine and treat their deviant and dependent population. In his introduction, Rothman examines the reasons that this question is now one of the core concerns of European and American social history; analyzes the many imaginative answers that have been proposed; and evaluates their strengths and weaknesses. The volume explores American attitudes toward crime, madness, poverty and delinquency, and demonstrates how these ideas shaped both the design and the routine of the new institutions. There were no available models for the asylum; it had to be imagined and fabricated with few guiding precedents. The results revolutionized the treatment of the deviant and dependent and have profoundly affected the structure of modern society.

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9780202307152

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[A] useful contribution to a growing body of literature on social deviancy in our early history. --Ernest Cassara, American Quarterly David Rothman's Discovery of the Asylum is an important book. . . . [I]ts substance and scholarship indicate once again the priority of history over social science. Rothman's analysis of the historical foundations of the asylum is far more compelling and cogent than any known attempt to posit a social or psychic basis. . . . Rothman connects the rise of the asylum with the spread and promulgation of the idea that the best way to treat criminals, paupers, orphans, and the aged--as well as the insane--was to put each category in huge buildings whose architecture had been contrived to promote the values of order, hierarchy, and fixity. . . . Rothman's carful consideration of the impact of restoration sentiments on the buildings of the asylum, and on its routine philosophy and chosen therapy, is excellent. Sociologists interested in some of the actual reasons for the existence of such places should be sure to read The Discovery of the Asylum. --David Matza, American Journal of Sociology David J. Rothman's prize-winning book. . . aims directly at our awareness of the origins and development of America's major institutions of social control. . . . Rothman reminds us that institutionalization of deviants and dependents as a primary solution to crime, poverty, delinquency, and insanity is a relatively recent historical development. . . . It was not until the 1820s that noninstitutional care of dependents and deviants gave way before the rise of the asylum. . . . Rothman's book. . . has become the first volume to which we must refer students of crime, poverty, and deviancy in antebellum America. --Jack M. Holl, The William and Mary Quarterly In a book that is simultaneously a work of history and social criticism, David J. Rothman presents an interpretation of American society during the first half of the nine

<p> [A] useful contribution to a growing body of literature on social deviancy in our early history. <p> --Ernest Cassara, American Quarterly <p> David Rothman's Discovery of the Asylum is an important book. . . . [I]ts substance and scholarship indicate once again the priority of history over social science. Rothman's analysis of the historical foundations of the asylum is far more compelling and cogent than any known attempt to posit a social or psychic basis. . . . Rothman connects the rise of the asylum with the spread and promulgation of the idea that the best way to treat criminals, paupers, orphans, and the aged--as well as the insane--was to put each category in huge buildings whose architecture had been contrived to promote the values of order, hierarchy, and fixity. . . . Rothman's carful consideration of the impact of restoration sentiments on the buildings of the asylum, and on its routine philosophy and chosen therapy, is excellent. Sociologists interested in some of the actual reasons for the existence of such places should be sure to read The Discovery of the Asylum. <p> --David Matza, American Journal of Sociology <p> David J. Rothman's prize-winning book. . . aims directly at our awareness of the origins and development of America's major institutions of social control. . . . Rothman reminds us that institutionalization of deviants and dependents as a primary solution to crime, poverty, delinquency, and insanity is a relatively recent historical development. . . . It was not until the 1820s that noninstitutional care of dependents and deviants gave way before the rise of the asylum. . . . Rothman's book. . . has become the first volume to which we must refer students of crime, poverty, and deviancy in antebellum America. <p> --Jack M. Holl, The William and Mary Quarterly <p> In a book that is simultaneously a work of history and social criticism, David J. Rothman presents an interpretation of American society during the first half of the nine

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David J. Rothman, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

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