States of Inquiry: Social Investigations and Print Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the United States (New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History)

"Oz Frankel's State of Inquiry explores the nineteenth-century roots of the modern "information state," specifically the roles of investigative projects and official reports in embedding the state in print culture and refashioning the politics of representation." "In the mid-nineteenth century, American and British governments marched with great fanfare into the marketplace of knowledge and publishing. British royal commissions of inquiry, inspectorates, and parliamentary committees conducted famous social inquiries into child labor, poverty, housing, and factories. The American federal government studied Indian tribes, explored the West, and investigated the condition of the South during and after the Civil War." "Performing, printing, and then circulating these studies, government established an economy of exchange with its diverse constituencies. In this medium, which Frankel terms "print statism," not only tangible objects such as reports and books but knowledge itself changed hands. As participants, citizens assumed the standing of informants and readers." "Even as policy investigations and official reportage became a distinctive feature of the modern governing process, buttressing the claim of the state to represent its populace, government discovered an unintended consequence: it could exercise only limited control over the process of inquiry, the behavior of its emissaries as investigators or authors, and the fate of official reports once issued and widely circulated." "This study contributes to current debates over knowledge, print culture, and the growth of the state as well as the nature and history of the "public sphere." It interweaves innovative, theoretical discussions into meticulous, historical analysis."--Jacket

In the mid-nineteenth century, American and British governments marched with great fanfare into the marketplace of knowledge and publishing. British royal commissions of inquiry, inspectorates, and parliamentary committees conducted famous social inquiries into child labor, poverty, housing, and factories. The American federal government studied Indian tribes, explored the West, and investigated the condition of the South during and after the Civil War.

Performing, printing, and then circulating these studies, government established an economy of exchange with its diverse constituencies. In this medium, which Frankel terms "print statism," not only tangible objects such as reports and books but knowledge itself changed hands. As participants, citizens assumed the standing of informants and readers.

Even as policy investigations and official reportage became a distinctive feature of the modern governing process, buttressing the claim of the state to represent its populace, government discovered an unintended consequence: it could exercise only limited control over the process of inquiry, the behavior of its emissaries as investigators or authors, and the fate of official reports once issued and widely circulated.

This study contributes to current debates over knowledge, print culture, and the growth of the state as well as the nature and history of the "public sphere." It interweaves innovative, theoretical discussions into meticulous, historical analysis.

Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 PART I: MONUMENTS IN PRINT......Page 38 1 Blue Books and the Market of Information......Page 52 2 The Battle of the Books......Page 85 3 The Bee in the Book......Page 117 PART II: THE CULTURE OF THE SOCIAL FACT......Page 150 4 Scenes of Commission......Page 152 5 Facts Speak for Themselves......Page 186 6 Can Freedmen Be Citizens?......Page 217 PART III: TOTEM ENVY......Page 248 7 Archives of Indian Knowledge......Page 256 8 The Purloined Indian......Page 286 Conclusion......Page 315 Notes......Page 324 Essay on Sources......Page 356 A......Page 372 C......Page 373 D......Page 374 F......Page 375 H......Page 376 L......Page 377 M......Page 378 P......Page 379 R......Page 380 S......Page 381 U......Page 382 Z......Page 383 Contents General introduction Monuments in print : the state as publisher Introduction Blue books and the market of information The battle of the books : citizens as readers The bee in the book : expeditions & explorations The culture of the social fact Introduction Scenes of commission Facts speak for themselves Can freedmen be citizens? Totem envy Introduction Archives of Indian knowledge The purloined Indian Conclusion Essays on sources Notes.