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"Ferguson, Robert A., 1942-2017. author"
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Inferno : an anatomy of American punishment
\"America's criminal justice system is broken. The United States punishes at a higher per capita rate than any other country in the world. In the last twenty years, incarceration rates have risen 500 percent. Sentences are harsh, prisons are overcrowded, life inside is dangerous, and rehabilitation programs are ineffective. Police and prosecutors operate in the dark shadows of the legal process--sometimes resigning themselves to the status quo, sometimes turning a profit from it. The courts define punishment as \"time served,\" but that hardly begins to explain the suffering of prisoners. Looking not only to court records but to works of philosophy, history, and literature for illumination, Robert Ferguson, a distinguished law professor, diagnoses all parts of a now massive, out-of-control punishment regime. He reveals the veiled pleasure behind the impulse to punish (which confuses our thinking about the purpose of punishment), explains why over time all punishment regimes impose greater levels of punishment than originally intended, and traces a disturbing gap between our ability to quantify pain and the precision with which penalties are handed down. Ferguson turns the spotlight from the debate over legal issues to the real plight of prisoners, addressing not law professionals but the American people. Do we want our prisons to be this way? Or are we unaware, or confused, or indifferent, or misinformed about what is happening? Acknowledging the suffering of prisoners and understanding what punishers do when they punish are the first steps toward a better, more just system\"--publisher's website.
Book
Alone in America : the stories that matter
With more people living alone today than at any time in U.S. history, Ferguson investigates loneliness in American fiction, from its mythological beginnings in Rip Van Winkle to the postmodern terrors of 9/11. At issue is the dark side of a trumpeted American individualism. Ferguson shows that we can learn, from our literature, how to live alone.
eBook
Metamorphosis : how to transform punishment in America
In the past few years, the need for prison reform in America has reached the level of a consensus. We agree that many prison terms are too long, especially for nonviolent drug offenders; that long-term isolation is a bad idea; and that basic psychiatric and medical care in prisons is woefully inadequate. Some people believe that contracting out prison services to for-profit companies is a recipe for mistreatment. Robert Ferguson argues that these reforms barely scratch the surface of what is wrong with American prisons: an atmosphere of malice and humiliation that subjects prisoners and guards alike to constant degradation. Bolstered by insights from hundreds of letters written by prisoners, Ferguson makes the case for an entirely new concept of prisons and their purpose: an \"inner architectonics of reform\" that will provide better education for all involved in prisons, more imaginative and careful use of technology, more sophisticated surveillance systems, and better accountability -- Dust jacket.
Book
Practice extended
Written by a renowned literary critic and legal historian,Practice Extendedilluminates the intricacies of legal language and thought and the law's relationship to society, literature, and culture. Robert A. Ferguson details how judicial opinions are written, how legal thought and philosophy inform ideas, and how best to appreciate a courtroom novel. With chapters touching on a wide range of subjects, including immigration, eloquence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Supreme Court case over James Joyce'sUlysses,Practice Extendedprovides an ambitious argument for the importance of language in law and a much-needed analysis of the often vexed relationship between law and literature.
Ferguson challenges the notion of law as a hermetic enterprise only accessible to experts. He reveals the discipline's relationships to history, religion, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and the visual arts, offering a rich account of how the law has shaped and has been shaped by communal thought. He also recognizes the critical role of literature and other outside views in showcasing the social problems that law takes up.Practice Extendedreflects Ferguson's crucial role as a pioneer in developing the field of law and literature. His writing reminds us of the need for a critical approach to the law that draws on the insights of literature to better understand political and legal history and the documents, laws, and arguments that shape our present. At the same time, this volume also showcases the ways in which the law has been integrated into works of literature, fromBilly Buddto contemporary courtroom thrillers.
eBook
Practice extended : beyond law and literature
\"Practice Extended is a collection of Robert A. Ferguson's essays reflecting forty years of his scholarship and reflects the evolution and the aims of the field as well as its impact on the study of both literature and law. Ferguson's work explores a wide range of topics including immigration, eloquence, the Constitution, rhetoric and Ulysses, and mercy. Ferguson's essays emphasize the interdisciplinary connection between law and literature. The field, as Ferguson sees it has roots in two major developments in the intellectual history of law--first, the growing doubt about whether law in isolation is a source of value and meaning, or whether it must be understood within larger cultural and intellectuals contexts; and, second, the continued focus on the mutability of meaning in all texts, whether literary or legal. Those who work in the field stress one or the other of two complementary perspectives: law in literature (understanding legal issues as they are explored in great literary texts such as Billy Budd) and law as literature (understanding legal texts by reference to methods of literary interpretation, analysis, and critique)\" -- Provided by publisher.
Book
Inferno : an anatomy of American punishment
Robert Ferguson diagnoses all parts of a massive, out-of-control punishment regime. Turning the spotlight on the plight of prisoners, he asks the American people, Do we want our prisons to be this way? Acknowledging the suffering of prisoners and understanding what punishers do when they punish are the first steps toward a better, more just system.
eBook
Reading the Early Republic
Reading the Early Republic focuses attention on the
forgotten dynamism of thought in the founding era. In every case,
the documents, novels, pamphlets, sermons, journals, and slave
narratives of the early American nation are richer and more
intricate than modern readers have perceived. Rebellion, slavery,
and treason--the mingled stories of the Revolution--still haunt
national thought. Robert Ferguson shows that the legacy that made
the country remains the idea of what it is still trying to become.
He cuts through the pervading nostalgia about national beginnings
to recapture the manic-depressive tones of its first expression. He
also has much to say about the reconfiguration of charity in
American life, the vital role of the classical ideal in projecting
an unthinkable continental republic, the first manipulations of the
independent American woman, and the troubled integration of civic
and commercial understandings in the original claims of prosperity
as national virtue. Reading the Early Republic uses the
living textual tradition against history to prove its case. The
first formative writings are more than sacred artifacts. They
remain the touchstones of the durable promise and the problems in
republican thought
eBook
The trial in American life
In a bravura performance that ranges from Aaron Burr to O. J. Simpson, Robert A. Ferguson traces the legal meaning and cultural implications of prominent American trials across the history of the nation. His interdisciplinary investigation carries him from courtroom transcripts to newspaper accounts, and on to the work of such imaginative writers as Emerson, Thoreau, William Dean Howells, and E. L. Doctorow. Ferguson shows how courtrooms are forced to cope with unresolved communal anxieties and how they sometimes make legal decisions that change the way Americans think about themselves. Burning questions control the narrative. How do such trials mushroom into major public dramas with fundamental ideas at stake? Why did outcomes that we now see as unjust enjoy such strong communal support at the time? At what point does overexposure undermine a trial’s role as a legal proceeding? Ultimately, such questions lead Ferguson to the issue of modern press coverage of courtrooms. While acknowledging that media accounts can skew perceptions, Ferguson argues forcefully in favor of full television coverage of them—and he takes the Supreme Court to task for its failure to grasp the importance of this issue. Trials must be seen to be understood, but Ferguson reminds us that we have a duty, currently ignored, to ensure that cameras serve the court rather than the media. The Trial in American Life weaves Ferguson’s deep knowledge of American history, law, and culture into a fascinating book of tremendous contemporary relevance.
eBook