Rites of Execution - Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865 (Paperback, New Ed)

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 War. Relating the gradual shift in rituals of punishment and attitudes toward discipline to the emergence of a middle class culture that valued internal restraints and private punishments, Masur traces the changing configuration of American criminal justice. He examines the design of execution day in the Revolutionary era as a spectacle of civil and religious order, the origins of organized opposition to the death penalty and the invention of the penitentiary, the creation of private executions, reform organizations' commitment to social activism, and the competing visions of humanity and society lodged at the core of the debate over capital punishment. A fascinating and thoughtful look at a topic that remains of burning interest today, Rites of Execution will attract a wide range of scholarly and general readers.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	October 1991
First published:	May 1991
Authors:	Louis P. Masur (Assistant Professor of History)
Dimensions:	210 x 135 x 17mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	218
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-506663-0
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1750 to 1900 Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Crime & criminology > Penology & punishment > General Books > History > American history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900 Promotions
LSN:	0-19-506663-4
Barcode:	9780195066630

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