Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865
By Louis P. Masur.
Description
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, Western societies abandoned public executions in favor of private punishments, primarily confinement in penitentiaries and private executions. The transition, guided by a reconceptualization of the causes of crime, the nature of authority, and the purposes of punishment, embodied the triumph of new sensibilities and the reconstitution of cultural values throughout the Western world. This study examines the conflict over capital punishment in the United States and the way it transformed American culture between the Revolution and the Civil ...
ISBN(s)
0195066634, 9780195066630
