Book description
Until the early twentieth century, printed invitations to executions
issued by lawmen were a vital part of the ritual of death concluding a
criminal proceeding in the United States. In this study, Gordon Morris
Bakken invites readers to an understanding of the death penalty in
America with a collection of essays that trace the history and
politics of this highly charged moral, legal, and cultural issue.
Bakken has solicited essays from historians, political scientists, and
lawyers to ensure a broad treatment of the evolution of American
cultural attitudes about crime and capital punishment.
Part one of this extensive analysis focuses on politics, legal
history, multicultural issues, and the international aspects of the
death penalty. Part two offers a regional analysis with essays that
put death penalty issues into a geographic and cultural context. Part
three focuses on specific states with emphasis on the need to
understand capital punishment in terms of state law development,
particularly because states determine on whom the death penalty will
be imposed. Part four examines the various means of death, from
hanging to lethal injection, in state law case studies. And finally,
part five focuses on the portrayal of capital punishment in popular culture.
Gordon Morris Bakken earned B. S., M. S., Ph. D., and J. D. degrees
from the University of Wisconsin. He teaches courses on American legal
and constitutional history, westward movement, American military
heritage, women of the American West, women and American law, as well as
historical thinking and historical writing at California State
University, Fullerton. He is the author or editor of numerous books
including Icons of the
American West: From Cowgirls to Silicon Valley
.
