Description
Book SynopsisHiding the Guillotine examines the question of state involvement in violence by tracing the evolution of public executions in France. Why did the state move executions from the bloody and public stage of the guillotine to behind prison doors? In a fascinating exploration of a grim subject, Emmanuel Taïeb exposes the rituals and theatrical form of the death penalty and tells us who watched, who participated in, and who criticized (and ultimately brought an end to) a spectacle that the state called punishment.
France''s abolition of the death penalty in 1981 has long overshadowed its suppression of public executions over forty years earlier. Since the Revolution, executions attracted tens of thousands of curious onlookers. But, gradually, there was a shift in attitude and the public no longer saw this as a civilized pastime. Why? Combining material from legal archives, police files, an executioner''s notebooks, newspaper clippings, and documents relating to 566 execution
Trade Review
The author combines deep archival research with contextualization: this includes addressing Ancien Régime practices, the civilizing process, centralization, and transformations in penal and information technology. This fascinating historical-sociological study, originally published in 2011, expresses apprehension concerning concealed and virtual representations of violence in modern democracies.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Competition between Legal Publicity and the Press
2. Conservative Representations of Executions
3. The Impossible Task of Designating Execution Sites
4. The Liturgical Crisis of Executionary Rituals
5. Watching Executions
6. Hiding a Ritual of Obedience: From Legitimization to Civilization
Conclusion
