Historicizing the Prison in the History of Capitalism

Authors

James Parisot, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-17-2025

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to rethink the timeline through which scholars have conceived of the history of capitalism and imprisonment. Scholars including Oliver C. Cox, Fernand Braudel, and Giovanni Arrighi, among others, have presented a story of capitalism centered around the Italian-city states, followed by the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States. Yet discussions on the origins of capitalism and imprisonment, eventually resulting in the invention of the penitentiary as an institution of reform, usually start around the sixteenth century. Incorporating insights from both of these angles, this paper shows the historical ways that different centers of capitalist power developed prisons in the context of the broad contours of the history of capitalism from fourteenth century Italy to nineteenth century England.

Comments

Copyright (c) 2025 James Parisot. Articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License.

Recommended Citation

Parisot, James. "Historicizing the Prison in the History of Capitalism." Journal of World-Systems Research 31.1 (2025): 263-285. https://doi.org/10.5195/JWSR.2025.1296

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Journal of World-Systems Research

DOI

10.5195/JWSR.2025.1296