David Garland is Professor of Sociology at New York University. He is one of the leading sociologists writing on punishment and crime control, his major works including Punishment and Modern Society, and The Culture of Control.

Students and practitioners in law, sociology, criminology, or for that matter, American studies will find this book a fascinating as well as useful provider of insights into why the death penalty unfortunately survives in America in an age of abolition.

• Prologue ; 1. Thinking about capital punishment ; 2. The American way of death ; 3. Capital punishment in the shadow of lynching ; 4. Capital punishment in long-term perspective ; 5. The decline of the death penalty in Europe and America ; 6. The causes of capital punishment's decline ; 7. The American state in comparative perspective ; 8. American society, American violence, American culture ; 9. Capital punishment and the American social structure ; 10. An American abolition: Furman v Georgia in context ; 11. Backlash: the new meanings of capital punishment ; 12. Rationalize, civilize, democratize: the Supreme Court strategies ; 13. The uses of capital punishment ; 14. The peculiar institution explained

David Garland is Professor of Sociology at New York University. He is one of the leading sociologists writing on punishment and crime control, his major works including Punishment and Modern Society, and The Culture of Control.

Students and practitioners in law, sociology, criminology, or for that matter, American studies will find this book a fascinating as well as useful provider of insights into why the death penalty unfortunately survives in America in an age of abolition.

• Prologue ; 1. Thinking about capital punishment ; 2. The American way of death ; 3. Capital punishment in the shadow of lynching ; 4. Capital punishment in long-term perspective ; 5. The decline of the death penalty in Europe and America ; 6. The causes of capital punishment's decline ; 7. The American state in comparative perspective ; 8. American society, American violence, American culture ; 9. Capital punishment and the American social structure ; 10. An American abolition: Furman v Georgia in context ; 11. Backlash: the new meanings of capital punishment ; 12. Rationalize, civilize, democratize: the Supreme Court strategies ; 13. The uses of capital punishment ; 14. The peculiar institution explained