Customer Reviews

The History of Torture (Sutton History Classics)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Daniel Mannix has written an extraordinarily detailed and intriguing treatise on the history and validity of torture, through every culture, era and continent in the world. From the earliest societies in Greece to modern-day usage, every aspect of torture is covered in this exhaustive volume.

It took me a while to get through Mannix's book, since I often read it in small blocks. Too much of this sort of information at once can be an almost nauseating experience - and I'm not particularly squeamish. However, after finishing it I found it to be a pretty rewarding venture that really gets you thinking about some important philosophical and historical concepts. I'll come back to this.

Mannix writes rather tersely and emotionally detached about the most unthinkable acts of humankind. He covers specific torture devices - what they were and how they were used - and then often recounts several specific situations when the device was used and what the results were. Every society and age has "contributed" something to the legacy of torture and Mannix leaves nobody out. Whether it's the Aztecs who once sacrificed 70,000 people in one event, to the Australian penal colonies, he not only covers it but also relates the differences and similarities between the devices and methods employed. Just some of the groups covered are the Native Americans, the Nazis, the Europeans throughout every century, Africans, South Americans, the North American colonies, the Inquisition, modern-day police in every major country, Asians of every era and dynasty, Vikings, African-American slaves, and the witch trials. He makes careful notes of when a torture device was reused or modified in some way from society to society.

The specific stories he relates are always shocking and beyond belief, yet they are well-documented accounts. The ingenuity of torturers is truly staggering, rivaling some of the greatest inventors of all time. How these monsters came to devote enough of their minds and time to devising these horrible instruments is unthinkable. Yet Mannix explores every last deep, dark corner of these demented minds.

There are several areas of the humanities that Mannix touches upon, sometimes deliberately, sometimes inadvertently. In general he tries to stick to the facts and avoid inserting his opinion. On occasion, however, he can't resist and shows his hand with a carefully written sentence or a colorful adverb. One area that he didn't specifically touch upon that got me thinking a great deal, is that of the reparations forced on certain social groups by other social groups for past crimes. Various races, even in America, consider the atrocities enacted on their race to be the worst in humankind's history. Reading Mannix's book will show that this is the result of a very narrow and uninformed view of history. The brutal decimation of hundreds of thousands of Aztecs, the mass executions of nearly two million people by Ghengis Khan, the horrible slave trades of the ancient Romans, the demented torturings of the Inquisition - in modern times only the atrocities of Hitler seem to directly compare to these events. While Mannix deftly avoids opinions for most of the book, he does close his work with a chapter on corporeal punishment and its effectiveness as a deterrent of crime. This chapter was remarkably well-written and presents thought-out arguments presenting both sides of the debate. He gives no-nonsense, logical examples of why in some cases corporeal punishment can never work, and in other cases where it clearly has proven effective. It was a surprisingly well-done cap to his book. After reading hundreds of pages of what the worst of humankind is capable of, it helped put things in perspective.

As a book, it could be a little tighter. There is no logical flow from chapter to chapter, nor is there an index. As a result it sometimes feels as though Mannix is repeating himself, and you are a little lost as to the overall historical context of the situation. The chapters are also not titled, nor is there an index, so there is no easy way to go to a specific era or torture device you want to research.

This book also scared me slightly, since it showed me just what human beings are capable of doing to each other. The Romans killed each other for sport. They would crucify slaves in the Coliseum and then gamble on who would die first, die last, etc. There was a time when humans - the same specie that lives today - considered this entertainment. To be honest, this is one of the reasons why Reality TV bothers me so much. Aside from putting completely talentless people on television, it also harkens back to the days when blood-thirsty fans screamed and applauded the misery of others. While it's very different to watch a person eating a live cockroach than to watch a lion eat a person, I believe the same sick desire is at the root of both audiences. It may seem a very big leap, to go from where we are now to watching a TV show where someone may die, but five years ago I would never have dreamt people would be picking a spouse from a game show, or eating the genitalia of a pig as "entertainment." It happens every week now on primetime. Even the show Jackass on MTV, while often funny, still puts these men in situations where they might be killed by several different methods. Mark my words, it will get worse. In the same way that this book became easier for me to read after the first fifty pages - as I became desensitized to it - so will we as a nation become more and more desensitized to what we consider entertaining. If you doubt we can go so far as to kill people for entertainment, I only point you to Mannix's book for a quick reminder of where we once were, not so long ago.

The book is well writen and non-biased. The author presents the material in a way that is non-judgemental considering the behaviour of the people he writes about.

When I hear discussions of capital/corporal punishment, I like to read excerpts from the book to gain perspective. The book begins with the torture and execution of an entire Jewish family because of their refusal to eat pork. He goes on to describe the games, the inquisition, and the fanatics who were in control throughout history.

It's not an easy book to read. I had to put it down several times because it was so graphic. However, it's not gratuitous violence. It was compelling enough to pick back up again.

The book questions the effectiveness of punishment. The final pages are the arguments from both sides, those who are proponants and opponants of capitol or corporal punishment. I thought he did a good job of presenting the different arguments.

Daniel P. Mannix has given us a great compilation of facts, rumors, and ideals in "The History of Torture." He examines the pros and cons of torture, discussing whether it even works and in what circumstances it works best, as well as when and why it can be totally ineffective. He discusses the reactions and ideals of the people who did the torturing, delving into what they hoped to accomplish by torturing each other and how the different ways of torturing affected the person being tortured and the people watching, if any.

Mannix puts everything into historic perspective. He talks about how different societies grew up around corporal punishment (Rome, France, America, etc) and discusses different morals and ideals throughout the past thousand or so years that allowed torture to take place. His facts are interlaced with stories and rumors, which to me are just as interesting because it gives a sense of what people believed versus what actually took place. Religious factions play a large role in torture, and Mannix reviews which religious sects tortured and when and why they stopped.

Mannix discusses the different types of torture, from the instruments to the uses of each torture, and gives examples of each. He relates different torture devices to instruments he has already written about, which gave a sense of how torture evolved. Mannix also tells of which societies were (or are) the most effective at torturing their victims.

All in all, it was a very interesting read. I feel that I've learned a lot from this book, and I am very interested in continuing to learn more. This book was a great starting point.

Is torture an atavistic tendency that is left-over from our evolutionary roots? Is it a means to deter crime? Does it serve to placate the sadistic impulses of society in their attempt to punish those who disobey social rules? This book highlights the use of torture throughout cultures and time while exploring both the possible global and cultural specific reasons for its widespread use. This book is a must read for history buffs and thanatophiles alike. It is a relatively short read but covers the topic in good detail.

It is difficult to rate this work as it will appeal (or not) to different people for different reasons. I found it to be an interesting survey of torture techniques through history and occasionally found myself cringing in disbelief; humans can do such horrible things to one another. It is by no means exhaustive or considered a scholarly work on crime and punishment.

Topics of discussion: flogging, burning at the stake, caning, the deplorable conditions on ships carrying slaves, and many other horrible ways that executioners and just sadistic people inflicted pain on others. Can you imagine watching your next door neighbor's 8 year old son being hanged for breaking a window pane?

The work contains, graphic historical accounts of the techniques as they were employed. It also contains some plates in the center that show various implements in use.

The work is missing a Table of Contents and an Index making locating topics of interest tedious.

Books of a more scholarly nature worth considering:

Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancien Regime

Torture: A Collection

I have read a few books on torture- Daniel Mannix's was the most enjoyable. Like other reviews note, the text opens with a powerful episode in human torture. It feels like the author leaves no rock unturned in discussing humanity's dark past (and present), exploring even the tangents on torture such as acts committed against animals (that was new to me). I feel the book an easy read considering the original publish date. Mannix gives first hand details about his research including a visit to a private museum exhibit, a peek inside a decrepit Holocaust facility, and discussions with parties who performed brainwashing.

I'm just waiting for a book on torture that includes pictures, not to be morbid. But hey- if we're interested in reading about torture we're probably drawn to device diagrams, instrument illustrations, chamber photos, and even renderings of the acts themselves. Overall, good book on the subject, not a difficult read, and really draws the reader in to feel what victims felt- making us appreciate where we are at today.

"Ad mala patrata haec sunt atra theatre parata"
Dark theaters are suitable for dark deeds, as it appears in Latin on the walls of torture chambers of the Inquisition. It's interesting to know the author motivated to publish a book on history's darker chapter is the same writer who authored the inspiration behind Disney's The Fox and the Hound.

Mannix's book is not a serious work of history. It can be read as interesting diversion, but should not be understood as an accomplished work of scholarship. In fact, there are some quite implausible claims made throughout. For example, Mannix claims that the end of judicial torture in the 18th-century could be attributed primarily to Beccaria's humanistic tracts! This is simplistic to say the least. After the work of Langbein, however (see Torture and the Law of Proof), this claim is simply undefensible. Moreover, Mannix fails to adequately distinguish the different theaters of torture, leading to far too many general claims (on punitive torture, one cannot do better than Foucault's Discipline and Punish, his hyperbole not withstanding).

An accurate portrayel of the complex judicial and punitive changes that led to the previous abolition of legalized torture requires much more nuance--let alone attention to detail and source documents!

This book has it all---murder, cruelty, history, execution, murder, boiling oil, cruelty, and lots of enigmatically depraved sentences. Mannix is the MAN!nix. The guy can write---he puts these sentences down that are novels in themselves. I've read most of his books, but none of them touches this one for haiku-like brilliance of his prose. He can roll of a description of the most depraved acts known to man with a terseness befitting a VCR manual. Ace stuff.

Particularly heart warming is the story of the Russian princess way back when who was having an affair, and was punished by being frozen into a fortress made of solid ice with her lover and a gaggle of midgets and mentally-less-than-thou types, who forced them to make whoopee on the ice bed.

But that's just one example, and there are literally thousands in this book. The depth of the research is just staggering.

It all reminds me of the time I was laid off by Bob Egan. I mean, it wasn't like I was tortured or anything---he felt bad about it, so did I. But the thing was that Bob could lay out sentences like nobody's business. I remember when the company announced that there were going to be layoffs, and they packed nearly 100 people into a conference room that was designed to hold 30, then connected with the Chicago office via the high tech phone system, and announced that the company was going to "go through some changes". It was Bob's job there to soften the blow---I think he was the "COO", whatever that means---but stay realistic about it all. So he stepped up to the plate after the CEO (Chief Executive Officer, I'm told), and made this really funny but bang-on comment about the state of the company. I can't remember what that comment was, though, since they'd closed the door to the conference room, and there was absolutely no oxygen left in the room. So that was kind of like torture, and Bob was kind of like Mannix.

Anyway, they used to have to clear rats out of the dungeons because they would eat the fingers and toes off of people locked in the stocks, and then they'd bleed to death, leaving the public with no murder to watch, which was bad. Bob laid me off 8 months ago and I'm still unemployed---which is fine, since it's given me a lot of time to catch up on rereading this book. The only thing that would've made the book better would be a guest appearance by Nixon.