Stephen Brauer is associate professor of English at St. John Fisher College.
"A fascinating book that traces the lasting impacts of the social sciences on contemporary understandings of crime and criminality. Using a case-study style, Bauer shows the interweaving of scholarly work in the social sciences - mainly criminal anthropology, psychology, and sociology - with American cultural production and the criminal justice system. Academic arguments on the biological, psychological or socio-economic bases of criminal activity are analyzed as manifest in a wide range of criminal trials and cultural artifacts from Dick Tracy and The Great Gatsby to New Jack City and The Wire. The result is a compelling read that highlights the modernist roots of what it means to be criminal. --Jonathan Finn, Wilfrid Laurier University Brauer frames his work using the organizing principle of modernity--the emphasis on rationality and science to understand society. He meticulously describes four general schools of thought that emerged over the last 150 years to explain criminal behavior. Media depictions still use aspects of these explanations, sometimes in combination, to yield common, though perhaps incomplete, accounts of criminal behavior. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. -- ""Choice Reviews"""