• The sociology of punishment and punishment today; punishment and social solidarity - the work of Emile Durkheim; punishment and the construction of authority - a reworking of Durkheimian themes; the political economy of punishment - Rusche and Kirchheimer and the Marxist tradition; punishment as ideology and class control - variations on Marxist themes; punishment and the technologies of power - the work of Michel Foucault; beyond the power perspective - a critique of Foucault on punishment; the rationalization of punishment - Weberian themes and modern penality; punishment and culture - cultural forms and penal practices; punishment and sensibilities - a genealogy of "civilized" sanctions; punishment as a cultural agent - penality's role in the creation of culture; punishment as a social institution.

This is a superbly intelligent study, without doubt the best yet written on a topic, penality, which the author has done so much to develop ... As a state of the art account it is unlikely to be bettered for many a year.