While the book incorporates selected descriptions of historical contingencies in relation to particular eras and punishment ideas and practices, it does not provide individual "histories" of these eras. Rather than doing history, the book uses history to frame and help explain specific punishment ideas and practices in relation to the period and context from which they evolved. Initial book chapters deal with punishment in ancient and medieval Europe and Colonial America, punishment and deterrence in America during the period of transition from 1790 to 1830, and punishment and reform in America in the 19th century. Subsequent book chapters focus on the rise of reformatories, parole, and probation from the 1880's to the 1930's and on the juvenile court movement, rehabilitation, and the proliferation of penal services from the early 1900's to the 1960's. Finally, book chapters look at prison subcultures in the 1950-1960 period, prison rights issues and the decentralization of corrections during the 1960's and the 1970's, law and order and punishment themes of the 1980's and 1990's, and penal reform and the culture of control since the 1990's. The authors show how the larger culture of crime control extends beyond criminology and impacts on declining levels of democracy, freedom, and privacy. References, tables, and figures