This collection focuses on the cultural history of the police as an institution from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Contrary to most studies on the law and the state, Police Forces demonstrates how profoundly modern democracies are enveloped by more informal and less codified modes of social control. In a time when the rule of law appears to be on the retreat, 'police studies' emerges as a field in its own right. This volume helps stake out this new discipline, including the intricate link between police and the law, 'might' and 'right,' state violence, surveillance technologies, politics and resistance. Police Forces considers the question of law and order from below: alleyways, borders, police stations, law offices, bureaucracies, and the minds of administrators, in which the quotidian workings of the law unfold.

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Reviews

'It is unusual for a collection of essays to form such a seamless whole as in the case of Police Forces. Mladek has brought together a superb group of international scholars, whose contributions illuminate, often in startling ways, the history of the 'police' in reality and imagination. One is uncertain whether to praise the book more for the acuteness of its historical analyses or for its urgent contemporary relevance. This is an exemplary and pioneering contribution that will have a major impact on work in cultural studies.' - David E. Wellbery, University of Chicago

'By tracing the history of modern police activity, largely through a German lens, this illuminating volume helps us understand the central and expanding role of policing.More than law or even war-making, policing may be emerging as the primary field for the exercise of power in contemporary society.' - Michael Hardt, Duke University

About the authors

KLAUS MLADEK is Assistant Professor of German Studies at Dartmouth College, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Police Forces: A Cultural History of an Institution
Editors: Klaus Mladek
Series Title: Studies in European Culture and History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230607477
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4039-7986-5Published: 25 September 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-53846-1Published: 19 December 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-60747-7Published: 06 August 2007
Series ISSN: 2945-6274
Series E-ISSN: 2945-6282
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 277
Topics: European History, Modern History, Social History, Cultural History, History of the Americas, Popular Science in Education

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

Front Matter