Cop Knowledge: Police Power and Cultural Narrative in Twentieth-Century America

Whether They Appear In Mystery Novels Or Headline News Stories, On Prime-time Tv Or The Silver Screen, Few Figures Have Maintained Such An Extraordinary Hold On The American Cultural Imagination As Modern Police Officers. Why Are We So Fascinated With The Police And Their Social And Political Power? What Relation Do These Pervasive Media Representations Bear To The Actual History Of Modern Policing?--cover. Introduction. Thin Blue Lines : Police Power And Cultural Storytelling -- 1. The Machinery Of A Finished Society : Stephen Crane, Theodore Roosevelt, And The Police -- 2. ... And The Human Cop : Professionalism And The Procedural At Midcentury -- 3. Blue Knights And Brown Jackets : Beat, Badge, And Civility In The 1960s -- 4. Hardcovering True Crime : Cop Shops And Crime Scenes In The 1980s -- 5. Framing The Shooter : The Globe, The Police, And The Streets -- Epilogue. Police Blues. Christopher P. Wilson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.