The historical relationship between democracy and the death penalty in America is vexed and bloody. Stephen John Hartnett faces it without blinking. In Executing Democracy, past meets present in a profound combination of learning, experience, eloquence, and passion.
Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor, University of Pittsburgh Having missed his calling as a writer for the Police Gazette, Stephen Hartnett has settled for documenting American democracys perplexing relationship with capital punishment. This second volume provides rigorous scholarship and nuanced readings of diverse texts, but its also a page-turner. Hartnett understands how public culture can be both sensationalistic and deliberative, and how in public discussion of capital cases democracy itself is on trial.
Robert Hariman, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University