New Publication
Jeremy Bentham and Australia is a collection of scholarship inspired by Bentham’s writings on Australia. These writings are available for the first time in authoritative form in Panopticon versus New South Wales and other writings on Australia, a volume in The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham published by UCL Press.
In the present collection, a distinguished group of
authors reflect on Bentham’s Australian writings, making original contributions
to existing debates and setting agendas for future ones. In the first part of
the collection, the works are placed in their historical contexts, while the
second part provides a critical assessment of the historical accuracy and
plausibility of Bentham’s arguments against transportation from the British
Isles. In the third part, attention turns to Bentham’s claim that New South
Wales had been illegally founded and to the imperial and colonial
constitutional ramifications of that claim. Here, authors also discuss
Bentham’s work of 1831 in which he supports the establishment of a free colony
on the southern coast of Australia. In the final part, authors shed light on
the history of Bentham’s panopticon penitentiary scheme, his views on the
punishment and reform of criminals and what role, if any, religion had to play
in that regard, and discuss apparently panopticon-inspired institutions built
in the Australian colonies.
This collection will appeal to readers interested in Bentham’s life and thought, the history of transportation from the British Isles, and of British penal policy more generally, colonial and imperial history, Indigenous history, legal and constitutional history, and religious history.
The book is edited by Tim Causer, Margot Finn, and Philip Schofield.
Jeremy Bentham and Australia: Convicts, Utility, and Empire (UCL Press) is free for download at this link.
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