Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947 - Softcover

Pfeifer, Michael J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 025207405X ISBN 13: 9780252074059

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2006

Synopsis

Vigilante retribution remained widespread in rural and working class areas of the United States in the late 19th century. Pfeifer shows how only the transformation of the death penalty into an efficient, technocratic and highly racialized mechanism of retributive justice brought the practice to an end.

About this title

Book Description

The history of lynching’s transformation from collective, popular violence to state_sanctioned, sanitized execution

In this first national, cross-regional study of lynching and criminal justice, now in paperback, Michael J. Pfeifer investigates the pervasive and persistent commitment to "rough justice" that characterized rural and working class areas of most of the United States in the late nineteenth century.

Defining rough justice as the harsh, informal, and often communal punishment of perceived criminal behavior, Pfeifer examines the influence of race, gender, and class on understandings of criminal justice and shows how they varied across regions. He argues that lynching only ended when "rough justice" enthusiasts compromised with middle-class advocates of due process by revamping the death penalty into an efficient, technocratic, and highly racialized mechanism of retributive justice.

About the Author

Michael J. Pfeifer teaches American history at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 025207405X
• ISBN 13: 9780252074059
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 245