Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria-Bonesana (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛzare bekkaˈria]; March 15, 1738 – November 28, 1794) was an Italian jurist, philosopher and politician best known for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764), which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology.

Beccaria was born in Milan on March 15, 1738 and educated in the Jesuit college at Parma. Then he graduated in Law from the University of Pavia in 1758. At first, he showed a great aptitude for mathematics, but the study of Montesquieu redirected his attention towards economics. His first publication, in 1762, was a tract on the disorder of the currency in the Milanese states, with a proposal for its remedy. During this time Beccaria, with the brothers Alessandro and Pietro Verri and a number of other young men from the Milan aristocracy formed a literary society, which was named "L'Accademia dei pugni" (the Academy of Fists), a playful name that made fun of the stuffy academies that proliferated in Italy and also because relaxed conversations that were taking place in there were sometimes ending in affrays.^{[citation needed]}

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.