Address:
Tony Platt Papers, 1942-2023 (majority within 1960-1985)
Using These Materials
- Restrictions:
- The collection is open for research.
Summary
- Abstract:
- Tony Platt (1942-) is a scholar and activist focusing on criminal justice, race, inequality, and social justice. The Tony Platt papers (1942-2023, bulk dates 1960-1985) focus on his early career including his graduate education, postdoctoral activitites, and term as a professor at the now-closed School of Criminology at the University of California, Berkeley. After the completion of his dissertation later published under the name, "The Child Savers: The Invention of Juvenile Deliquency" and his postdoctoral fellowship with the University of Chicago, he returned to the University of California, Berkeley in 1968 as an Assistant Professor. Notable for his activism, professional engagement, and development of a "radical criminology", Platt was a key figure in shifting the School of Criminology from a professional program heavily connected to the police to an academic program centered on examining the issues of the field through understanding the effects of racism, colonialism and imperialism, and other factors popular with students throughout the 1960s-1970s. However, his career at the university was also shaped by a long fight for tenure and the debate over the School of Criminology's future. The Platt papers consist of 11 linear feet arranged in five series covering the early part of Platt's career. The Platt papers feature correspondence with scholars, faculty, and other individuals, research notes and drafts, course materials, files related to professional development activities such as conferences, clippings, legal files, and other collected materials reflecting Platt's research and professional ties.
- Extent:
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11 Linear Feet
9 records center boxes and 1 oversize box - Authors:
- Finding Aid created by Tere Elizalde using ArchivesSpace, December 2023.
Background
- Scope and Content:
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Materials have been divided into 5 series.
1. Biographical: Primarily includes materials reflecting Platt's education prior to obtaining his Ph.D. in 1966, along with personal materials such as calendars, photographs, and later reflections of his work. Significant materials include those in the subseries for "The Child Savers". Materials are arranged by date.
2. Postdoc Activities: Includes materials reflecting Platt's time in Chicago where he completed a fellowship with the University of Chicago. Subseries include materials such as correspondence, research files related to his work, significant projects undertaken by Platt such as Legal Sevices to Youth and the Community Legal Defense Organization, and photographs taken by Bill Mares who worked with Platt in Chicago. Materials are arranged by date.
3. Academic Activities: Consists of the largest amount of materials in the collection and covers Platt's career at the Uniersity of California, Berkeley (1968-1976) with few materials afterwards. Subseries include Correspondence, Course Materials, Faculty files, Professional Activities, Articles and Writing, and Topical Files. Correspondence spans the entirety of Platt's time at Berkeley. Course Materials feature Platt's courses at Berkeley including lecture notes, readings, projects, and other documentation. Faculty files include communication, reports, and other materials between Platt and other faculty members at Berkeley. Professional activities include notes and materials related to conferences, speaking engagements, and other activities. Articles and Writing feature several articles written by Platt in collaboration or individually. Topical files include smaller projects, activism, and some collected materials from scholars that Platt knew. The subseries, Correspondence, is arranged by Incoming and Outgoing, and by date. The subseries for Faculty Files, Professional Activities, Articles and Writing, and Topical Files are arranged by date. The subseries, Course Materials are arranged by course number with the full title of the course included.
4. Project Files: Includes files for several large projects led by Platt between 1968-1976 that led to articles, professional engagement, research, and mobilization at the University of California, Berkeley. Subseries include the Politics of Protest, Prison Action Project, Campus Police Project, History of Criminology, and Save the Crim School campaign. Materials are arranged by date.
5. Case Files: Includes two series related to Platt's case for tenure. The subseries, Tenure and Legal files includes additional materials related to Platt's tenure case such as correspondence, memos, research, clippings, and various legal documents. Meanwhile, the subseries, FOIA, consists of records related to Platt's request for information about government surveillance and the report made about him while he was at Berkeley. Materials are arranged by date.
- Biographical / Historical:
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Tony Platt was born as Anthony M. Platt in England in 1942. He received his undergraduate degree from Oxford University in 1963, and his Master's in Criminology and Doctorate in Criminology in 1965 and 1966 respectively from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation was later published as "The Child Savers: The Invention of Deliquency" in 1969, which has been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, Italian, and Japanese, and which is still in print today.
After the completion of his Ph.D., Platt was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago (1966-1968) working with youth, community groups, and other organizations that influenced his perspectives and future work including Legal Services to Youth and the Community Legal Defense Organization. In 1968, he returned to the University of California, Berkeley as an Assistant Professor at the School of Criminology, where he was one of the pivotal figures transforming the School from a primarily professional program to one that was academic and examined the broader causes of crime through "radical criminology" which had its roots in the anti-war movement, civil rights movements, student activism, Third World liberation struggles, anti-imperialism, and Marxism beginning in the 1960s.
While at Berkeley, he was an active scholar and professor, with the publication of books such as "The Politics of Riot Commissions" and multiple articles, conference presentations in the field of criminology, membership on the editorial board for the journal "Crime and Social Justice" (now Social Justice), and the development of curriculum within the School of Criminology. Significant to his teaching career was integrating his activism and perspectives with radical criminology into the curriculum including the foundational "Introduction to Criminology" sequence taught to hundreds of students alongside colleagues such as Paul Takagi, Barry Krisberg, and David DuBois. In addition, he was active and supportive of many of the social movements on campus during the 1960s-1970s regarding the increase in police on campus, People's Park, the Third World Liberation Front, and more, some of which were reflected in several projects carried out while at Berkeley including the Prison Action Project and the Campus Police Project.
Platt's career was also marked by a long case for tenure and debate over the future for the School of Criminology. In early 1971, Platt was unanimously recommendend for tenure, but was later denied by Albert Bowker, the acting chancellor at Berkeley in 1972. The delay and lack of clarity over the process alongside statements by Bowker regarding the future of the school and Platt's scholarship, would lead to a case by Platt and other parties over the next several years to reconsider Platt's case and address issues of academic freedom. In addition, the debate over the future of the School of Criminology led to efforts by many, including Platt, to prevent the school's closure with research, reports, letters of support, and student protests as part of the "Save the Crim School" campaign. However, neither Platt's case for tenure and campaign to save the school were successful. Platt taught his final course at Berkeley in 1976, "New Criminology" and shortly thereafter, the School of Criminology closed with most tenured faculty moving to the Center for Study of Law and Society at Berkeley.
After the closure of the school, Platt joined the faculty at California State University, with appointments at San Jose State University, and other positions as a visiting professor and researcher around the world. In 2014, Platt returned to Berkeley as a Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society and as a member of the UC Berkeley Truth and Justice Project in 2020. He continues to publish with recent works such as "Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States" in 2019 and "The Scandal of Cal: Land Grabs, White Supremacy, and Miseducation at UC Berkeley" in 2023.
Sources:
"Curriculum Vitae", May 2023, Box 1, Tony Platt Papers, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).
"Platt Chronology 1963-1974", undated, Box 9, Tony Platt Papers, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).
Tony Platt, "Prospects for a Radical Criminology in the United States", Crime and Social Justice: A Journal of Radical Criminology, no. 1 (Spring-Summer 1974).
Tony Platt, Tony Platt GoodtoGo (blog), accesseed December 2023, https://goodtogo.typepad.com/tony_platt_goodtogo/.
- Acquisition Information:
- Materials were purchased from Bolerium Books, June 2023.
- Processing information:
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Materials were processed in 2023 after completing the accessioning work by Tere Elizalde. Removed materials include student papers, documents with student grades, and select clippings. Due to the poor condition of some records, copies were made and replaced the originals.
- Arrangement:
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The Tony Platt Papers have been arranged into five series: Biographical, Postdoc Activities, Academic Activities, Project Files, and Case Files. Materials are arranged primarily by date with the following exceptions of some correspondence and the Course Materials subseries in Academic Activities. Correspondence is arranged by incoming and outgoing then date, and Course Materials are arranged by course number.
- Rules or Conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Contents
Using These Materials
- RESTRICTIONS:
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The collection is open for research.
- USE & PERMISSIONS:
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Copyright has not been transferred to the Regents of the University of Michigan. Permission must be obtained from the copyright holder(s).
- PREFERRED CITATION:
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Tony Platt Papers, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).