Blanc ou Noir

Jonathan Benthall of the Times Literary Supplement reviews Punir: Une Passion Contemporaine (Seuil, 2017), by Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science. The work, he writes, "testifies admirably to the power of anthropology to pluck theories from other disciplines and test them in the crucible of fieldwork. Where Fassin goes further than other criticism of penitentiary regimes is in his diagnosis of a disturbing cruelty that lies at their heart, despite the abolition of corporal punishments in the West and despite the efforts of lawyers and activists to outlaw torture."

Read more at the Times Literary Supplement.