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Executing Freedom: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States
In the mid-1990s, as public trust in big government was near an all-time low, 80% of Americans told Gallup that they supported the death penalty. Why did people who didn’t trust government to regulate the economy or provide daily services nonetheless believe that it should have the power to put its citizens to death?
That question is at the heart of Executing Freedom , a powerful, wide-ranging examination of the place of the death penalty in American culture and how it has changed over the years. Drawing on an array of sources, including congressional hearings and campaign speeches, true crime classics like In Cold Blood , and films like Dead Man Walking , Daniel LaChance shows how attitudes toward the death penalty have reflected broader shifts in Americans’ thinking about the relationship between the individual and the state. Emerging from the height of 1970s disillusion, the simplicity and moral power of the death penalty became a potent symbol for many Americans of what government could do—and LaChance argues, fascinatingly, that it’s the very failure of capital punishment to live up to that mythology that could prove its eventual undoing in the United States.
That question is at the heart of Executing Freedom , a powerful, wide-ranging examination of the place of the death penalty in American culture and how it has changed over the years. Drawing on an array of sources, including congressional hearings and campaign speeches, true crime classics like In Cold Blood , and films like Dead Man Walking , Daniel LaChance shows how attitudes toward the death penalty have reflected broader shifts in Americans’ thinking about the relationship between the individual and the state. Emerging from the height of 1970s disillusion, the simplicity and moral power of the death penalty became a potent symbol for many Americans of what government could do—and LaChance argues, fascinatingly, that it’s the very failure of capital punishment to live up to that mythology that could prove its eventual undoing in the United States.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published November 18, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 10, 2020
A great look into how the popular imagination is both reflected and influenced by popular portrayals of capital punishment and the social forces that drive attitudes about punishment and the death penalty. This has intellectual depth but remains easy to read. I highly recommend, especially for anyone else who grew up watching John Wayne westerns and the Dirty Harry flicks.
May 31, 2017
A really intriguing and unique look at this controversial topic.
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If you wish, you may read my full review and analysis here:
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December 4, 2017364.66 L132 2016
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews