Pauperism, Moral Character, and the Liberal State

THREE MORE DIFFERENT BOOKS on similar subjects could scarcely be imagined. Dean relies almost exclusively on Foucaultian methods and categories bui adds a strong gender analysis, while Fecteau's approach is derived from the French neo-Marxist 'regulation school,' which questions the analytic primacy of the mode of production but not that of class. On her part, Himmelfarb praises late Victorian moral/social reformers from a Thatcherite back-to-moral-basics perspective. Reading the three books together produces the intellectual equivalent of the gastric effects of mixing a hot curry with a cream-laden pasta dish, and then following this by a baked Alaska. And yet, under the stylistic compulsion to find or invent a unifying theme for a review-essay, one could argue—especially if one had already developed a critique of political economy for its failure to theorize moral regulation

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