The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770-1868 / Edition 1

by V. A. C. Gatrell

Overview

Hanging people for petty crimes as well as grave, the Bloody Penal Code was at its most active between 1770 and 1830. Some 7,000 men and women were executed on public scaffolds, watched by crowds of thousands.
This acclaimed study is the first to explore what a wide range of people felt about these ceremonies. Gatrell draws on letters, diaries, ballads, broadsides, and images, as well as on poignant appeals for mercy which, until now, have been largely neglected by historians. Panoramic in range, scholarly in method, and compelling in style and in argument, this is one of those rare histories which both shift our sense of the past and speak powerfully to the present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192853325
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/28/1996
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	656
Product dimensions:	9.19(w) x 6.13(h) x 1.35(d)

About the Author

V.A.C. Gatrell is Fellow of Caius and University Lecturer in the Faculty of History at Cambridge University.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a powerful, committed, and well-written book."—Financial Times

"Gatrell's sensitive and elaborate reconstructions of ciminal cases, appeals to mercy, and executions are the strength of this important and provocative study."—Times Literary Supplement

"Brilliant and passionately argued....Gatrell writes with flair and imagination. This work will receive the wide audience it deserves."—CHOICE

"Brilliant book."—The Guardian

"V.A.C. unflinchingly confronts his readers with the reality of capital punishment. [The book] marks an advance in historiography by synthisizing the statistical work for which he was previously known with the history of popular culture and the history of ideas and political reform."—Journal of Modern History

"[A] powerful, engaged, and imprssive book."—The Albion

"Gatrell's The Hanging Tree is a book that is often interesting and full of useful insights...it is an important contribution to the history of crime and justice."—City Crowds and Criminal History

From the Publisher