Great Books Written in Prison by Regan, J. Ward -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Acknowledgments Preface

J. Ward Regan

Contents of the Book Law, Order and Violence How This Book Came Together

Introduction

J. Ward Regan

What Are Great Books? A Brief History of Prison Who Were These Authors? Institutionalized Violence as a Means of Control The Morality of Violence Government Power, or the Creation of the State Institutionalizing and Sanitizing Collective Violence Works Cited

Socrates’ Trial and Death by Execution

Farzad Mahootian

Summary Introduction Who Was Socrates? Socrates’ Defense: The Apology Putting Athens on Trial Socrates in Prison: Practicing Philosophy and Planting Paradoxes The Role of Myth in Socratic Discourse Shifting Frames and Reconciling Opposites Conclusion Works Cited

Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy: Why Do the Innocent Suffer?

Heidi White

Summary Introduction Boethius’s Service to the Ostrogoths Boethius’s Arrest Lady Philosophy and the Stoic Tradition Fortune as Fickle Boethius’s Emphasis on Moral Motivation Boethius’s Theology Notes Works Cited

Poetic Justice: The Civilization of the Heart in Malory’s Morte Darthur

Stephanie Kiceluk

Summary The Identity Crisis The Heroics of Crime and the War of the Roses The “Knight Prisoner”: Ordeals, Plots and Defections The Book: The Motif of Wholeness in the Morte A Binding Power: “Enfellowship” and Lancelot’s Saving Grace Works Cited

A Prisoner of Circumstance: Cervantes, Don Quixote and Literary Self-Authorship in the Early Modern Period

Sean Eve

Summary The Trouble with History The Invisible Man First the Pen, Then the Sword To Hell and Back And So It Begins Free at Last Works Cited

Thomas Paine and The Age of Reason

J. Ward Regan

Summary Introduction Biography The American Revolution, Common Sense and The American Crisis The French Revolution, The Rights of Man and Exile From International Hero to Political Prisoner Luxembourg Prison After Luxembourg Historical Context and Importance of The Age of Reason Summary and Analysis of The Age of Reason Textual Analysis of The Age of Reason

Book I Book II

Conclusion Note Works Cited

Thoreau’s Rhetoric of Resistance

Peter Diamond

Summary Introduction Thoreau’s Opposition to Social Reform The Context of Thoreau’s Reform Writings Thoreau’s Rhetoric of Resistance Thoreau, Prison and Persuasion Works Cited

Epistle from Prison: Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis [Epistola in Carcere et Vinculis]

Joseph J. Portanova

Summary Background: Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, and the Marquess of Queensberry The Libel Trial of Queensberry; The Trials of Oscar Wilde for Gross Indecency Oscar Wilde in Prison: The Writing of De Profundis Lord Alfred Douglas in De Profundis Autobiography, Fantasy and Tragedy Prison, Revelation and Redemption Wilde After Prison; De Profundis After Wilde Notes Works Cited

Bertrand Russell, World War I and Analytic Philosophy

Phil Washburn

Summary Introduction Russell and the War Going to Prison Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy Conclusion Notes Works Cited

His Majesty’s Hotels: Gandhi’s Satyagraha in South Africa

Martin F. Reichert

Summary Gandhi in Jail Conditions in Colonial Jails The Book Satyagraha in South Africa The Early Years South Africa India Satyagraha Textual Analysis Notes Works Cited

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India: The Writing of History, Fighting for Freedom in Ahmandnager Jail

Tilottama Tharoor

Summary Introduction Biography and Political Beginnings Jail Terms Jail Experience The Book The Discovery of India A Book Description and Analysis The Book’s Challenges to Existing Western Narratives Works Cited

Drifter’s Escape: Adolf Hitler and the Writing of Mein Kampf

Rolf Wolfswinkel

Summary A Career Out of Nowhere: 1889–1923 The “Drummer to Germanism” A Memoir at 34 Works Cited

Antonio Gramsci’s The Prison Notebooks: A Humanist Reconstruction of Marxism

Brendan Hogan

Summary Biographical Sketch Historical Background The Book The Prison Notebooks Gramsci’s New Historical Materialism Legacy and Impact Works Cited

Jean Genet: Our Lady of the Flowers in Prison

Afrodesia E. McCannon

Summary Biography Social and Political Context The Book Our Lady of the Flowers Conclusion Works Cited

In the Shadows of Prison: Sayyid Qutb’s Visions of a Perfect World

Peter C. Valenti

Summary Introduction Biography Trip to the United States Return to Egypt Intellectual Influences Prison Cell as Islamic World The 30 Volumes of In the Shade of the Qur’an The Book Milestones The Martyr’s Legacy Notes Works Cited

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and Nonviolent Social Transformation

Joyce Apsel

Summary Introduction Historical Background Writing “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Nonviolence and Human Rights Content of the Letter Why We Can’t Wait: Direct Nonviolent Action Against Segregation and Racism Just and Unjust Laws The Negro Community, “Somebodiness,” Discontent and Extremism Conclusion: Nonviolence in the Face of Violence; Hope for Deliverance and Justice Works Cited

About the Contributors List of Names and Terms

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