In Russian & French Prisons

London: Ward & Downey. 1887. First edition. 250x140mm. pp. [7],387,[3]. Publisher's original blue cloth with black illustration and chain-link border design, lettered in gold on front board and spine. Rubbed and bumped at corners and spine. One or two spots of soiling on back board. Internally lightly foxed over first 6 pages but otherwise very good. Overall a very nice copy of an important historical and sociological text. Drawing from his own experiences, anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin gives a brutal critique of the Russian and French prison systems and argues that rather than reform they serve as destructive schools of crime. Throughout the text Kropotkin highlights the harsh conditions that prisoners are forced to endure and ultimately decides that prisons act as places of retribution rather than correction. [ref. 5349]