This book explores the identity of Texas as a state with a large and severe penal system. It does so by assessing the narratives at work in Texas museums and tourist sites associated with prisons and punishment. In such cultural institutions, complex narratives are presented, which show celebratory stories of Texan toughness in the penal sphere, as well as poignant stories about the witnessing of executions, comical stories that normalize the harsher aspects of Texan punishment, and presentations about prison officers who have lost their lives in the war on crime. In analysing these representations, the book shows that Texan history plays an important role in the production of Texan self-identity, and that to understand the Texan commitment to harsh punishment we must be prepared to focus on Texan myths and memories.

Prisons and Punishment in Texas draws on diverse interdisciplinary work, including criminology, cultural studies aboutSouthern values, as well as research on cultural memory and dark tourism. Museums are shown to be under-researched sites of criminological significance, which offer rich evidence through which penal imaginaries and the cultural role of punishment can be explored. The book will be of great interest to criminologists as well as scholars of sociology, cultural studies, museum studies and politics.

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Authors and Affiliations

University of Brighton, United Kingdom

Hannah Thurston

About the author

Hannah Thurston is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Brighton, UK. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Kent in 2014. She researches museological representations of both punishment and policing.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Prisons and Punishment in Texas
Book Subtitle: Culture, History and Museological Representation
Authors: Hannah Thurston
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53308-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-53307-4Published: 06 July 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-53308-1Published: 20 June 2016
Series ISSN: 2753-0604
Series E-ISSN: 2753-0612
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 249
Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 15 illustrations in colour
Topics: Prison and Punishment, Crime and Society, Criminological Theory, Sociology of Culture, American Culture, Cultural Heritage

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

Front Matter

Setting the Scene for Museological Research

Front Matter

Representing Punishment in the United States of America

Front Matter

The Punishment Museums of the Lone Star State

Front Matter

The Texan Self-identity Past and Present

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book

Keywords

Authors and Affiliations

University of Brighton, United Kingdom

About the author

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Buy it now

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