A Handbook on Hanging

by Charles Duff

Book Overview

A Handbook on Hanging is a Swiftian tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilization: the hangman. With barbed insouciance, Charles Duff writes not only of hanging but of electrocution,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0940322676
• ISBN13: 9780940322677
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Handbook on Humor about a Sordid Business

Charles Duff wrote a charming book on executions and in particular English hangman. This book is a feigned tribute on executioners and in particular English executioners. Mr. Duff is arguing against capital punishment, but he does so without the cant of political correctness. Anyone who enjoys good humor will appreciate this book. Mr. Duff presents vivid details of the English hangmen's "art" and uses hunmorous anecdotes of their fine craft in dispatching malafactors. There are humorous examples of how the English hangmen used mathematics and careful study of the intended victims so that executions can be as painless and as quick as possible. Mr. Duff traces the improvements in public executions since Anglo-Saxon England and after the Conquest (1066). He comments on "Merrie Ole England" when the Tudors used hanging along with drawing-and-quartering which some of the English refer to as "The good old days." Mr. Duff cites examples of State sponsored executions whereby the condemned was actually innocent, but the State or Crown had to have their "pound of flesh" regardless of errors in justice. Mr. Duff cites examples where "court experts" were either wrong or perjured themselves so that an execution could take place, the hangmen could maintain gainful employment. Readers should note that at the turn of the 19th century (the 1800s), there were 210 offenses for which hanging was the punishment for the crime. These crimes included poaching on royal land, theft of five shillings (less than the value of a dollar), etc. Mr. Duff cites associating with gypsies as a capital offense, but he could not understand why associating with politicians was not included. For sheer humor, Mr. Duff uses a hypothetical case of the owner of butcher shop who caught his wife having an affair with an employee. Mr. Duff's description of the blow-by-blow brawl is amusing to say the least. This amusing anecdote starts on page 92. Mr. Duff also feigns and enterprising spirit when he suggested that film directors, television executives, media sponsors use their talents to publicly present executions to the fun and amusement of a population with morbid interests in such events. Mr. Duff pretends to show the shock of unemployed executioners just because of botched executions which resulted in decapitation, prolonged suffering, etc. However, Mr. Duff uses the judges' instructions that the condemned be hanged until dead regardless of the time or suffering. The one reviewer who wrote that he or she were appalled by this book either did not read it, or they have no sense of humor whatsoever. The idiotic comment the reviewer made that men like Mr. Cooper are disappearing is in incredible bad taste. The fact that such men have used humor to deal with tragedy is a sign that civilization is not dead. Again, this book was written as feigned praise for executioners. Mr. Duff was opposed to capitial punishment which is often debated. This reviewer favors capital

Let's hear it for diatribe in this case

I was delighted to find this obscure work of polemics on capital punishment throughout history and up to the (author's) present. Undertakes a diatribe on captial killing without the reactionary alarm on one hand and the sanctimonious philosphical, social, historical, and otherwise casuistic justifications of Foucault on the other. Actually quite useful when taken as an antidote for Foucault's overwrought "Discipline and Punish." Postmodernists who want to casuistically revel in the delights of capital punishment can go back to their Heavy Metal magazine and their coffee table Witkin. Not exactly art in any sense, this is nevertheless one case where diatribe serves as a welcome comic relief against what is a grotesque side of civilization. There is nothing so sacred about capital killing that we can't poke a little fun at its excesses and abuses too. And for the yo yo reviewer below, let us know when you actually read the book and get near a review.

Well, it's wry british humor against capital punishment

This is a great manual if you want to hang yourself; you know, amatuers simply strangle and suffocates to death, but that's not how the pros do it. The proper way to do it is to drop enough distance so that you break your neck, and then you don't want to drop TOO far because your neck would fall off (that's ugly, you know). To achieve this, a hangman has to know exactly how long the rope is, and how heavy the extra weight should be, and other huge knowledge base. In fact, it's more an art, because capital punishment doesn't do any good, no one's allowed to see it, it's stigmatized, and its there as an absolute pure art. Now, why don't we put more use to it? Why not make it into the nation's favorite TV show? If the court channel is so popular, imagine what a hit your Execution channel would be!The book goes through all of this in your typical British Humor, and it's great. And if you are smart, you'd realize that this book is actually a book against capital punishment, backed with figures and facts. I myself is not against the death penalty, but the book does make you think. Great book.Don'd read the preface by this whoever, though. It is boring and just plain stupid PC, and it makes you not want to read the book at all. It doesn't have any sense of humor, it tries to push the same ol' conclusions in a hastly manner, a real disgrace. Rip it out. Just go for the actual thing! If it hadn't been for this, I would have gave the book 5 stars.