Eugene Debs, Walls & Bars: Prisons & Prison Life in the “Land of the Free”

Authors

Edward L. W. Green, Kansas State University

Abstract

"This piece reviews a largely overlooked account of prison experience written by Eugene V. Debs, concerning observations of prisons around the turn of the 20th century in the US. The book Walls and Bars: Prisons & Prison Life in the “Land of the Free” contributes many insights consistent with contemporary knowledge for criminology and criminal justice. It is not, however, without notable limitations. The subject-position of this account is clearly political and biased in a Protestant brand of morality and humanism. Debs expresses himself substantively throughout the book between the polemics of the sacred and the profane, although not in those words specifically. The theoretical paradigm of the sacred and the profane underpins many sociological contributions of this historical era, most notably Durkheim. Although this work is historical, there are many statements that stand consistent with contemporary academic thought. As such, Debs’ work contributes a substantial historical and situated perspective to the Criminal Justice and Criminological body of knowledge."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Green, Edward L. W. (2013) "Eugene Debs, Walls & Bars: Prisons & Prison Life in the “Land of the Free”," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 1: No. 2, Article 15.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol1/iss2/15