Faces of degeneration : a European disorder, c.1848-c.1918 / Daniel Pick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pick, Daniel.

Series:

Ideas in context

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Degeneration--History--19th century.

Degeneration.

History.

Europe--Social conditions--1789-1900.

Europe.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

275 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First paperback edition.

Manufacture:

1996.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Summary:

In this work, Daniel Pick explores the conception and descent of a language of degeneration from c. 1848 to c. 1918, with particular reference to France, Italy and England. Drawing on extensive primary literature in medico-psychiatry, criminal anthropology, social criticism and the novel, the author demonstrates how in the shadows of evolutionary naturalism, new images and theories of atavism, 'degenerescence' and socio-biological decline emerged in European culture and politics.

Contents:

1 Contexts 1

Part I France

2 Degenerescence and revolution 37

3 Zola's prognosis 74

4 The wake of degenerescence 97

Part II Italy

5 Lombroso's criminal science 109

Part III England

6 Fictions of degeneration 155

7 Crime, urban degeneration and national decadence 176.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-270) and index.

ISBN:

052145753X

OCLC:

45201776