"This book charts the history of execution laws and practices in the era of the "Bloody Code" and their extraordinary transformation by 1900. Innovative and comprehensive, this work will find an audience with scholars interested in the history of crime and punishment in England"--

Simon Devereaux is Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria.

1. Introduction; 2. Executions for Treason, 1660-1820; 3. Changing Cultures of Execution: Religion and Feeling, 1660-1770; 4. Changing Cultures of Execution: Reason and Reforms, 1770-1808; 5. The Murder Act: Anatomization, 1752-1832; 6. The Murder Act: Hanging in Chains, 1660-1834; 7. The 'Bloody Code' Debated, 1808-1821; 8. The 'Bloody Code' Diminished, 1822-1830; 9. The Vicissitudes of Public Execution, 1830-1900; 10. Conclusion.