Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900

'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 'The book is both a critique and an argument about the changing logic of the governors of England, as an increasingly large and wealthy urban elite questioned the traditional rituals, their frequency, and the severity of the law. The governors of England wanted the gallows to be both a threat and a morality play for the unpropertied poor. Simon Devereaux's explanation of these conflicting pressures and purposes is informed by his invaluable database of 9,481 men, women, and children capitally convicted at the Old Bailey between 1730 and 1837.' Douglas Hay, Osgoode Hall Law School 'Simon Devereaux brings together several decades of work, including his own, in English criminal justice history to give a complete picture of a great but painfully slow transition from a Tudor-Stuart England that publicly executed people for what would now be considered trivial property infractions, to Queen Victoria's reign that executed people out of public view for the single crime of murder, to the ultimate abolition of capital punishment in the mid-twentieth century. He sensitively enters a mental world very different from that of today, while at the same time clarifying how political, social, and cultural changes made this great transformation possible.' Martin Wiener, Rice University '… an exceptionally clear and nuanced account of changes in the numbers and geography of executions, which provides a secure foundation for the analysis of the cultures of feeling and governance that surrounded them … Scholars pursuing this and other avenues of research in the field will have frequent recourse to this book, which provides a rich topography of English executions in the modern period.' Philip Handler, Journal of Modern History '… an indispensable work on execution culture that redefines the scholarship in this area. It is a hugely impressive and satisfying book that will remain essential for years to come.' Lizzie Seal, American Historical Review