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Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society

Coming Soon Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society

Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society

Author: Richard Thomas Bell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781009759380
Published In: October 2026
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

AU$104.00

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Description
Contents

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Why and how did English society embrace the prison as an answer to social problems? This study uncovers an important part of this story, revealing the growing centrality of prisons in early modern England to everyday social relations based on credit and debt.

Between 1560 and 1700, prisons became essential to disciplining economic and moral life, provoking growing anxiety over incarceration and loss of liberty. In turn, new ideas crystallised about prisons as tools of coercion, deterrence, punishment and rehabilitation, while novel abolitionist politics developed among prison activists. This came to a head during the English Revolution, when prisoners' longstanding antagonism towards state and legal institutions entered radical milieus and law reform movements, impacting debates over authority, tyranny and liberty.

This study reveals how straining credit networks, swelling prison populations and socioeconomic upheaval reshaped early modern society and politics. In doing so, Richard Thomas Bell sheds new light on the development of carceral ideas that remain fundamental, yet increasingly controversial, in contemporary society.

Introduction

Part I. State, Law and Society:

1. Carceral state formation

2. Debt and the carceral society

3. The experience of imprisonment

4. Compter's commonwealth? Prison communities and the problem of self-government

Part II. Politics, Radicals and Activism:

5. Against imprisonment for debt, 1618–1624

6. Prison publicity: religious and political confinement in a carceral society

7. Freeborn prisoners, 1640–1649

8. From abolition to reform, 1645–1691

Conclusion