Books by Philip Jenkins

In the last decade, serial murder has become a source of major concern for law enforcement agencies, while the serial killer has attracted widespread interest as a villain in popular culture. There is no doubt, however, that popular fears and stereotypes have vastly exaggerated the actual scale of multiple homicide activity. In assessing the concern and the interest, Jenkins has produced an innovative synthesis of approaches to social problem construction. It includes an historical and social-scientific estimate of the objective scale of serial murder; a rhetorical analysis of the construction of the phenomenon in public debate; and a cultural studies-oriented analysis of the portrayal of serial murder in contemporary literature, film, and the mass media.Using Murder suggests that a problem of this sort can only be understood in the context of its political and rhetorical dimension; that fears of crime and violence are valuable for particular constituencies and interest groups, which put them to their own uses. In part, these agendas are bureaucratic, in the sense that exaggerated concern about the offense generates support for criminal justice agencies. But other forces are at work in the culture at large, where serial murder has become an invaluable rhetorical weapon in public debates over issues like gender, race, and sexual orientation.Serial murder is worthy of study not so much for its intrinsic significance, but rather for what it suggests about the concerns, needs, and fears of the society that has come to portray it as an 'ultimate evil.' Using Murder is a highly original study of a powerful contemporary mythology by a criminologist and historian versed in the constructionist literature on the origins of 'moral panics.'

Extreme right-wing groups have always been a part of the American religious and political landscape. The era between the world wars was a particularly volatile period. Philip Jenkins uses developments in Pennsylvania as a case study of the local activities and broader significance of organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Italian Black Shirts, the Silver Legion, and the German-American Bund.

Traces the history of anti-drug movements, demonstrating that designer chemicals inspire so much fear because they bring into focus deeply rooted public concerns about social and cultural upheaval

Tells the fascinating, violent story of the Church's fifth century battles over 'right belief' that had a far greater impact on the future of Christianity and the world than the much-touted Council of Nicea convened by Constantine a century before.

A renowned historian of Christianity reveals that the "Lost Gospels" were never lost, and have shaped creeds across the world from antiquity to the present

Jenkins looks at the first amendment and how it should be applied to child pornography on the internet.

A paradigm-shifting history that reveals how the early Christian churches in the East helped to shape the Asia and the Christianity we know today

This study provides an extensive survey of the economic activities of the gentry, their role as entrepreneurs and as popularisers of the metropolitan culture of Georgian London. It describes how during the eighteenth century, local elites from remote corners of Britain were amalgamated into one new ruling class.

Providing a history of modern Wales, this book analyzes Welsh society, examining the Welsh language, culture and religion. The rise of nonconformity is explored as is the question of Wales as a nation. This book is intended to accompany the text "A History of Medieval Wales".