ABSTRACT
The latter part of the nineteenth century saw the shaping of a number of the great institutions that remain central to the structure of Western societies. These include the hospital, the prison, the factory, and the school. Each had existed in some form before, of course, but they were each radically transformed during this time to the general condition which has survived to the present. These transformations were guided by a set of ideas which have been carried forward through the years in the institutions they shaped. This set of ideas has also ensured a number of similarities among these institutions.
