{"product_id":"rites-of-execution-louis-p-masur-9780195066630","title":"Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of America Culture, 1776-1865","description":"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, \u003cem\u003eRites of Execution\u003c\/em\u003e will attract a wide range of scholarly and general readers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Louis P. Masur\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0195066634\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780195066630\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/30\/1991\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.62lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.32h x 5.36w x 0.65d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIngram Advance\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/1999 pg. 269","brand":"Louis P. Masur","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46250433478911,"sku":"9780195066630","price":44.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_686f6fab-4175-4e4a-a7f0-d3aac192d1d3.jpg?v=1729600306","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/rites-of-execution-louis-p-masur-9780195066630","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}