Skip to content
Scan a barcode
Scan
Added to your cart
Paperback The Death Penalty: An American History Book

ISBN: 0674010833

ISBN13: 9780674010833

The Death Penalty: An American History

Select Format

Select Condition ThriftBooks Help Icon

Recommended

Format: Hardcover

Condition: New

$39.95
50 Available
Ships within 2-3 days

You Might Also Enjoy

Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? the Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case
Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? the Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case
Paul G. Cassell

from: $5.19

Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States
Helen Prejean

from: $4.89

How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier
How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier
Stuart Banner

from: $31.99

The History of the Death Penalty in Colorado
The History of the Death Penalty in Colorado
Michael Radelet

from: $11.49

Old Sparky: The Electric Chair and the History of the Death Penalty
Old Sparky: The Electric Chair and the History of the Death Penalty
Anthony Galvin

from: $6.49

Against the Death Penalty
Against the Death Penalty
Steven Breyer

from: $10.79

Life: The Most Notorious Crimes in American History: Fifty Fascinating Cases from the Files
Life: The Most Notorious Crimes in American History: Fifty Fascinating Cases from the Files
Life Magazine, LIFE, Editors of Life Magazine

from: $6.09

Making America: A History of the United States, Brief Edition
Making America: A History of the United States, Brief Edition
Christopher L. Miller, Carol Berkin, James L. Gormly, Robert W. Cherny

from: $5.59

The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption
The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption
Stuart Banner

from: $13.69

Anglo-American Securities Regulation
Anglo-American Securities Regulation
Stuart Banner

from: $39.99

The Decline of Natural Law: How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped
The Decline of Natural Law: How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped
Stuart Banner

from: $58.00

Speculation: A History of the Fine Line Between Gambling and Investing
Speculation: A History of the Fine Line Between Gambling and Investing
Stuart Banner

from: $25.51

Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation
Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation
John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger

from: $6.19

The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy
The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy
Marifeli Pérez-Stable

from: $5.09

David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition
David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition
Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman, Neil Silberman

from: $5.19

"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide
"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide
Samantha Power

from: $4.39

Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)
Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)
Rebecca J. Cook

from: $5.59

The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution
The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution
Henry Friedlander

from: $15.59

Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 & the American Cover-up
Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 & the American Cover-up
Sheldon H. Harris

from: $31.89

The Death Penalty
The Death Penalty
Lynn M. Zott, Jenny Cromie

from: $5.09

Book Overview

The death penalty arouses our passions as does few other issues. Some view taking another person's life as just and reasonable punishment while others see it as an inhumane and barbaric act. But the intensity of feeling that capital punishment provokes often obscures its long and varied history in this country.

Now, for the first time, we have a comprehensive history of the death penalty in the United States. Law professor Stuart Banner tells the story of how, over four centuries, dramatic changes have taken place in the ways capital punishment has been administered and experienced. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the penalty was standard for a laundry list of crimes--from adultery to murder, from arson to stealing horses. Hangings were public events, staged before audiences numbering in the thousands, attended by women and men, young and old, black and white alike. Early on, the gruesome spectacle had explicitly religious purposes--an event replete with sermons, confessions, and last-minute penitence--to promote the salvation of both the condemned and the crowd. Through the nineteenth century, the execution became desacralized, increasingly secular and private, in response to changing mores. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, ironically, as it has become a quiet, sanitary, technological procedure, the death penalty is as divisive as ever.

By recreating what it was like to be the condemned, the executioner, and the spectator, Banner moves beyond the debates, to give us an unprecedented understanding of capital punishment's many meanings. As nearly four thousand inmates are now on death row, and almost one hundred are currently being executed each year, the furious debate is unlikely to diminish. The Death Penalty is invaluable in understanding the American way of the ultimate punishment.

Related Subjects

History

Customer Reviews

0 customer rating | 0 review
There are currently no reviews. Be the first to review this work.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
GoDaddy Verified and Secured