The Evolution of a Transatlantic Debate on Penal Reform, 1780–1830

Abstract

The essays in this book explore continuities and changes in Europe and North America in the period which straddles the French Revolution. They have been written with the aim of making connections between the substantial historiographies of the early modern and late modern periods; in so doing, they emphasize the new role for voluntary organizations which emerged in the late eighteenth century and draw out the implications of this for received accounts of the development of welfare states. They also compare and explain differences and similarities in the treatment of poverty in different countries within Europe and explore the networks of philanthropy which crossed Europe and spanned the Atlantic. Written from the perspective of donors, the essays are alert to the differing roles of men and women in charitable and philanthropic activity, to the impact of denomination, and to the ways in which philanthropists were drawn into wider reforming movements.