Rites of Execution : Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865.

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 pu...

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Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full text (MCPHS users only)
Main Author: Masur, Louis P.
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: New York : Oxford University Press, 1991
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Local Note:ProQuest Ebook Central
Description
Summary: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.
Physical Description:1 online resource (219 pages)
ISBN:9780198021582
0198021585
1601297955
9781601297952
Source of Description, Etc. Note:Print version record.