Executing Democracy

by Hartnett, Stephen John

• ISBN13: 9780870138690
• ISBN10: 0870138693
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-01
• Publisher: Michigan State Univ Pr

Summary

Executing Democracy: Capital Punishment & the Making of America, 1683-1807is 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 struggled to govern the rowdy indentured servants of Philadelphia, and continues up until 1807, when the Federalists sought to impose law-and-order upon the New Republic. 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.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction. The Rhetorical History of “A Very Hard Choice”	p. 1
Settler Debauchery, Capital Punishment, and the Theater of Colonial (Dis)Order, 1683-1741	p. 41
The Paradox of a Republican Revolution Using Executions as Pedagogy, 1768-1784	p. 79
The Hanging of Abraham Johnstone and the Turning of Terror into Hope, 1797	p. 123
Enlightenment, Republicanism, and Executions, 1785-1800	p. 161
Conclusion. The Hanging of John M'Kean and the Perils of Sinning in an Age of Reason	p. 211
Notes	p. 219
Bibliography	p. 275
Index	p. 303
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