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Victorians Against the Gallows: Capital Punishment and the Abolitionist Movement in Nineteenth Century Britain


Publishing Details

Full Title:

Victorians Against the Gallows: Capital Punishment and the Abolitionist Movement in Nineteenth Century Britain

Contributors:

By (Author) Dr James Gregory

ISBN:

9781848856943

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Imprint:

I.B. Tauris

Publication Date:

30th November 2011

Country:

United Kingdom

Classifications

Readership:

Tertiary Education

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Other Subjects:

European history
Social and cultural history

Dewey:

364.66094109034

Physical Properties

Number of Pages:

384

Dimensions:

Width 138mm, Height 216mm

Weight:

612g

Description

By the time that Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the list of crimes liable to attract the death penalty had effectively been reduced to murder. Yet, despite this, the gallows remained a source of controversy in Victorian Britain and there was a growing unease in liberal quarters surrounding the question of capital punishment. Unease was expressed in various forms, including efforts at outright abolition. Focusing in part on the activities of the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, James Gregory here examines abolitionist strategies, leaders and personnel. He locates the 'gallows question' in an imperial context and explores the ways in which debates about the gallows and abolition featured in literature, from poetry to 'novels of purpose' and popular romances of the underworld. He places the abolitionist movement within the wider Victorian worlds of philanthropy, religious orthodoxy and social morality in a study which will be essential reading for students and researchers of Victorian history.

Reviews

'This book fills an astonishing gap in the history of capital punishment in England. James Gregory deploys an unprecedentedly wide and rich array of primary source materials to tell the surprisingly neglected tale of efforts, amongst various individuals, organisations and religious denominations, to fully abolish capital punishment in England during the decades between the substantial diminution of the once wide-ranging "Bloody Code" in 1837 and the removal of executions behind prison walls in 1868. This book will henceforth be a starting point for all further discussions of this remarkable aspect of early Victorian English history.' - Simon Devereaux, Assistant Professor of History, University of Victoria

Author Bio

James Gregory is Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Bradford. He is the author of Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain (I.B.Tauris, 2007) and Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian England (I.B.Tauris, 2009).

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