An essential new effort to examine the link between literary representation and the death penalty in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America-a link that historicist criticism has left surprisingly underexplored in all areas of literary study... Barton's study of the death penalty in American literature is rich and wide-ranging... Because of its very carefully contextualized analysis of a range of authors ... Read moreand their approaches to the death penalty, and because the death penalty is so crucial in political and literary history for all the reasons Barton mentions, his book provides a necessary chapter in the historical analysis of nineteenth century American literature. Any scholars interested in death penalty debates-and perhaps everyone should be-will find their own understanding and research enhanced by the breadth of this book and its attention to nuances among political positions.
Mark Canuel Review 19 A rich account of the formative power that the institution of capital punishment exerted on the construction of the American citizen-subject from colonial times through the 1920s.
Birte Christ American Literary History Show Less