Customer Reviews

The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, And America's Struggle With The Death Penalty

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This book's importance reaches beyond the debate over the death penalty as it demonstrates and explains the relationship between power, money and punishment in America. It is a fascinating story, representing years of research by one of the best and most original minds in the country. Dr. Steelwater's examples brilliantly illustrate communities' and the State's involvement with capital punishment within the context of the contemporary events that shaped American attitudes toward community vigilantism and State supported and regulated legal execution. From the frontier experience to industrial labor unrest, from the racial violence of the Deep South to the mayhem of Western boom towns (and much more), violent historical events have shaped our attitudes about the need for and right of the community and the State to take life as retribution and/or deterrent. The Hangman's Knot is immensely readable with a bibliographic essay for each chapter. It should be included in the library of anyone who has an opinion about capital punishment. American history, social theory and economic geography are elegantly merged in this deeply intelligent and humane book.

Excellent book, but not a book that is easy to read. Facing our country's history in this area makes us look at our past and often gives a different slant on what we have accepted as history. The information in the book is so well researched and documented. The author does not rely on personal opinion to make her points, but cites numerous sources. She presents evidence and allows the reader to form their own opinion. Anyone with an interest in history and the social conscience of America would find this a worthwhile read.

At last some original perspectives on the capital punishment debate! This
is a history of capital punishment in America from the Salem witch trials
up to the present, as it explains how the U. S. wound up being one of the
few countries to retain the death penalty. The author also devotes several
chapters to America's efforts to end the death penalty, exploring the
beginnings and endings of each movement and and why some were more
effective than others.

Steelwater tells the stories of particular episodes like the San Francisco
vigilantes and post-Civil-War terrorists to show how much vigilante
lynchings had in common with legal executions. These stories point out how
much both legal execution and lynching had to do with what was going on
politically at the time (including rivalries within local communities, the
suppression of the labor movement, and discrimination against people of
color). There is obviously a lot of research behind this book, but it isn't
a dull recitation of facts and figures. The author writes very clearly and
she presents the history of the death penalty as a series of well-written,
suspenseful true stories.

This book is well researched so that the reader can have a high level of confidence in the facts presented. You can be assured that the facts are startling and shocking. The book points out that half of the prisoners in the world are in the prisons and jails of the USA. It just gets worse from there. There are too many errors and too much lack of justice in our justice system.

John Lamb killed one person and was executed for his crime. Sammy "The Bull" Gravano killed 19 persons and was given a soft sentance. In the USA there are about 22,000 homicides each year and only about 300 defendants are advanced to death row. They are almost all poor, have bad attorneys and are 99% male. Getting the death penalty is kind of a backwards lottery. If everything goes wrong, much of it out of the defendants control, such as your lawyer falling asleep in the courthouse, eyewitnesses lying (very common occurance), being born poor and being born the wrong gender, then the defendant may very well end up on death row. In order to "win" this horrific backwards lottery it helps to be on trial in Texas which has the most executions of any State. The law in texas is so punitive toward the defendant that at least one person was executed after he was found to be innocent by new evidence not allowed to be even considered due to an arbitrary 30 day time limit on bringing in new evidence.

This superbly written and authoritative book is a must for anyone wishing to learn more about America's relationship with the death penalty. The author has a readable style and uses historical and latter-day case studies to provide an excellent context within this thought-provoking text. Highly recommended to all!

This thoughtful and thought-proving book written by a foremost authority on the subject provides clear and concise insights in an accessible form. The case studies are illuminating and the writing style is flawless. I thoroughly recommend this book.

Hi, everyone. I'm the author of The Hangman's Knot. I'd like you to know that "remaindered" copies of the book (those with a small mark along one end of the pages) probably have a faulty index. A press run of these was released by mistake. If buying a used copy, please check that the index entries send you to the right page. Thanks to those who have bought the book, and special thanks to those reviewed it or sent thoughtful questions and responses to my website!

Eliza Steelwater writes clearly, consisely and not without humour on a subject that most people choose not to think about, providing us with the historical context which allows us to understand how Europe and America came to be divided on whether legal execution is the most appropriate action to be taken as a response to a serious crime. As Ms Steelwater confirms, execution has never been proved to be a deterrent. More worringly it is a punishment which is almost exclusively meted out to minorities and to the poorest in society. As the history of legal execution and lynchings in the US unfolds the case against the death sentence is strengthened. However, this is not the main purpose of the book, rather that we understand the context for and the discrepancies in applying the death sentence in the USA. Whether you are interested in history or in social justice, this book is an excellent read that will keep you thinking long after you have finished turning the pages.