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Executing Democracy: Vol. 1-Capital Punishment & the Making of America, 1683-1807 (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) (Rhetoric and Public Affairs)
Executing Democracy Vol 1Capital Punishment the Making of America 16831807 - Rhetoric & Public Affairs - Rhetoric and Public Affairs Author:Stephen J. Hartnett A rhetorical history of public debates about crime, violence, and punishment in America: — EXECUTING DEMOCRACY: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA, 1683 1807, is the first volume of a rhetorical history of public debates about crime, violence, and capital punishment in America. This examination begins in 1683, when William Penn first st... more »ruggled to govern the rowdy indentured servants of Philadelphia, and continues until 1807, when the Federalists sought to impose law-and-order upon the New Republic. (The forthcoming volume 2 concludes in 1843, at the close of one of the nation s most heated periods of debate regarding executions.) This volume offers a lively historical overview of how crime, violence, and capital punishment influenced the settling of the New World, the American Revolution, and the frantic post-war political scrambling to establish norms that would govern the new republic. By presenting a macro-historical overview, and by filling the arguments with voices from different political camps and communicative genres, Hartnett provides readers with fresh perspectives for understanding the centrality of public debates about capital punishment to the history of American democracy.
Illustrated with vintage engravings and charts. Notes, references, index.
IN THE SERIES: Rhetoric and Public Affairs
CONTENTS:
List of Illustrations...vii
Preface...ix
Acknowledgments...xvii
INTRODUCTION. The Rhetorical History of A Very Hard Choice...1
CHAPTER 1. Settler Debauchery, Capital Punishment, and the Theater of Colonial (Dis)Order, 1683 1741...41
CHAPTER 2. The Paradox of a Republican Revolution Using Executions as Pedagogy, 1768 1784...79
CHAPTER 3. The Hanging of Abraham Johnstone and the Turning of Terror into Hope, 1797...123
CHAPTER 4. Enlightenment, Republicanism, and Executions, 1785 1800...161
CONCLUSION. The Hanging of John M'Kean and the Perils of Sinning in an Age of Reason...211