Memory as Power - (De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences) by Alex Tepperman & Paul Bleakley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Featuring a collection of works by scholars from across a variety of disciplines, this book outlines the principles of a critical historical criminology. For historical criminologists, this book provides a framework of how to engage with historical material in a way that is critical in its interrogation, instructive in terms of how the past impacts upon our current (and future) practice, and attentive to the dangers of presentism. For critical criminologists, this book highlights the potential benefits of looking to the past to inform our understanding of the critical issues we face in the current social, cultural, and political context in a purposeful, historically sensitive way.

This remarkable volume aims to model how to practice a critical version of historical criminology that has implications for practice in the contemporary period. It does so by incorporating contributions that emphasize robust, high-quality historical research that nonetheless speaks to issues and problems of premium concern to present-minded critical criminologists, bridging a gap between the past and present through an operationalization of the past that allows readers to better understand the criminological concerns of the present. In this sense, it can be used pedagogically, as a collection of works which model critical historical criminology, and is thus of instructional use alongside its research contribution.

Review Quotes

"'History has no value if it cannot speak to the present and critical criminology has no meaning if it does not contend with the past, ' write Bleakley and Tepperman. In Memory as Power, they reveal how historians and criminologists might find true harmony and cooperation - at a time when we most need it!"
Avi Brisman, Professor, School of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University

"This important collection constitutes a novel and sustained dialogue between historical criminology and critical criminology. The international ensemble of authors presents a wide-ranging set of chapters that explore themes of identity, deviance, power and empire within local, national and global settings in a variety of historical contexts. Collectively they illustrate the huge value of historical methods and perspectives. Insightful and ambitious, Memory as Power is essential reading for all who take the critical dimension of criminology seriously."
Henry Yeomans, Professor of Criminology, University of Leeds

About the Author

Alex Tepperman is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Winnipeg and the Chair of the American Society of Criminology's Division of Historical Criminology (ASC-DHC). His research focuses on crime among North American Ashkenazi Jews.

Paul Bleakley is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven and Vice Chair of the American Society of Criminology's Division of Historical Criminology (ASC-DHC). His research focuses on corruption and institutional deviance.