Punishment, Prisons, and Patriarchy: Liberty and Power in the
Early American Republic. By Mark E. Kann. New York: New York
University Press, 2005. 348p. $50.00.
Mark Kann's book is an astute, lucid, and valuable contribution
to the critical analysis of the history of imprisonment and, most
importantly, the relationships between liberty and punishment, the
persistent gulf between those classified as deserving or undeserving, and
the ideological assumptions and cultural practices regarding gender, race,
and class that sustain those distinctions.