Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947

By Michael J. Pfeifer

Book Overview

Study of lynchings, the criminal Justice system, and the death penalty. In this first national, cross-regional study of lynching and criminal justice, 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. 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 penality into an efficient, technocratic, and highly racialized mechanism of retributive justice.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252029178
• ISBN13: 9780252029172
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.3" x 6.0"