Execution, State and Society in England, 1660-1900

AvSimon Devereaux

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

Del i serien Studies in Legal History

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Beskrivning

This book provides the first comprehensive account of execution practices in England and their extraordinary transformation from 1660 to 1900. Agonizing execution rituals were once common. Male traitors were hanged, disembowelled while still alive, then decapitated and quartered. Female traitors were burned alive. And common criminals slowly choked to death beneath wooden crossbeams erected at the margins of towns. Some of their bodies were either left to rot on roadside gibbets or dissected by anatomy instructors. Two centuries later, only murderers and traitors were executed - both by hanging - and they died alone, usually quickly, and behind prison walls. In this major contribution to the history of crime and punishment in England, Simon Devereaux reveals how urban growth, and the unique public culture it produced, challenged and largely displaced those traditional elites who valued the old 'Bloody Code' as an instrument of their rule.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2023-10-26
Mått:158 x 235 x 30 mm
Vikt:760 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Studies in Legal History
Antal sidor:410
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781009392150

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Simon Devereaux is Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria.

Recensioner i media

'No historian has brought more analytic depth and subtle understanding to the study of capital punishment in early modern England than Simon Devereaux. This account of execution practice and culture over two centuries of English history will cement his well-deserved reputation. The book reveals the numerical pattern of executions, the grisly rituals of the gallows, and the impact of changing sensibilities on execution culture. It is exhaustively researched, compellingly argued, and lucidly written. It is quite simply a tour de force.' Victor Bailey, University of Kansas

Innehållsförteckning

1. Introduction; 2. Executions for Treason, 1660-1820; 3. Changing Cultures of Execution: Religion and Feeling, 1660-1770; 4. Changing Cultures of Execution: Reason and Reforms, 1770-1808; 5. The Murder Act: Anatomization, 1752-1832; 6. The Murder Act: Hanging in Chains, 1660-1834; 7. The 'Bloody Code' Debated, 1808-1821; 8. The 'Bloody Code' Diminished, 1822-1830; 9. The Vicissitudes of Public Execution, 1830-1900; 10. Conclusion.