Customer Reviews

Infernal Device: Machinery of Torture and execution

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Rühling taught himself 3-D rendering in order to create his lovely (and gruesome) little book. This petite yet substantial volume (40 full-color photo pages) deserves some kind of design award. He renders his gallery of torture tools in a stark museum-exhibit style while his text, an impressive feat of condensed scholarship, vividly evokes images of the poor souls who were subjected to their horrors. It's a jarring and effective contrast of the mechanistic and humanistic.

This book is divided into five categories of machinery, ranging from the simple (the chain scourge) to the elaborate (the brazen bull); works of art intended to cause pain. Within each category I've identified two torture devices popularized in movies, literature and history that most people might readily recognize.

Eric Ruhling's collection of 30 torture devices constructed from drawing and photographs which were created into 3D depictions is amazing. Each device has a short description of its use and functionality either real or fictional.

I.Punishments Vile
Piety belt
Chain Scourge
II.Crushing Embrace
Head Crusher
Thumbscrews
III.Fearful Penetration
Iron Maiden
St. Elmo's Belt
IV.The Unkindest Cut
Mutilation Shears
Guillotine
V.Sheer Brutality
The Brazen Bull
Judas Cradle

A great book that portrays a time in history through 3D representations of machinery both brutal and unforgiving, employed on victims in the name of justice, greed or power.

America's involvement with waterboarding, black prisons abroad, the re-interpretation of the Geneva Conventions, and introduction of 'harsh interrogation' has catapulted the issue of torture to the front of America's national political and policy debate. A much needed and very timely contribution to this national discussion is Erik Ruhling's new book "Infernal Device: Machinery Of Torture And Execution", a profusely illustrated and defined collection of torture devices utilized to extract information and confessions over the past two millennia. From the Iron Maiden, the Guillotine, and the Scavenger's Daughter to the Ear Chopper, the Thumbscrew, and the Ducking Stool, "Infernal Device" reveals the fundamental brutality of torture devices and is strongly recommended to the attention of those who are engaged on either side of the current national debate over the complex issues involved with waterboarding and other means of 'harsh interrogation'.

I feel like I've been totally ripped off. Most pages are photos with a short explanation. It reminds me of a coffee table book. If I had known that this was going to be so brief, I would never have spent the money on this.

This is a great quick read. It is not an in depth history but more of an overview. It would make a great coffe table book, and that is not intended as an insult.This book includes great large pictures and lots of them. I have aleady recommended to to others as it is interesting and informal.

This is a pretty cool book. Actually much better than the description. It has nugget-size information and pictures of various machines.

It's pretty clear that the author read Richard Sair's extremely rare work--usually catalogued under editor Arnold Hirsch (as Sair's name doesn't appear in the text)--as Ruhling has faithfully preserved much of Sair's misinformation and, in many cases, generous collops of text. Ruhling also injected some errors of his own--e.g., indicating that the instep borer is "another name" for the foot press when the two are quite unrelated--probably assuming that nobody will find the 1944 source by which to catch his glossings-over. The illustrations derive from the catalogue accompanying the Nuremberg assemblage that toured the U.S. in the 1890s, if I'm not mistaken. Had Ruhling thought about Sair's wildly erroneous pictures (when he pictures things that were not shown in the Nuremberg exhibit catalog), the results would have been superior: please explain to me how the foot press--as illustrated--can possibly manage effectively to squeeze a naked human foot in its standard configuration. Ruhling also needs an editor who speaks English: there is no such word as 'phalange', the singular of 'phalanges' being 'phalanx'. (I'm always amused by self-styled scholars who insist on showing off their ignorance because they can't be bothered to check 'facts' that they've, of course, obviously mastered . . . reminds me of my dad's friend, Bob, the mechanic, who made untold fortunes every time John Q. Doityourselfer turned what would've been a $100 repair into a $750 emergency by farting around in abject ignorance.)