Measuring Immorality: Social Inquiry and the Problem of Illegitimacy

by Gail Reekie

Book Overview

This book examines how social science transforms a biological event--a birth--into a social and moral problem. Drawing on Foucault's archaeology of knowledge, the book stresses the role of statistics and other truth-telling discourses in the birth and growth of the illegitimacy problem since the early nineteenth century. Chapters explore the diverse discursive origins of illegitimacy's negative meanings--expense, racial inferiority, social disorder,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521629748
• ISBN13: 9780521629744
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"