A Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff 1928 PLEASE SEE VIDEO For Sale

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A Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff 1928 PLEASE SEE VIDEO:
$140.00

A Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff 1928

Poor condition -- see all photos and video.

This is not one of the many reprints issued later. This is the actual book from 1928.

This has been deemed a culturally and historically important book.

The photos you see here are photos of the actual book that you will receive. Many book sellers online post using stock photos that often don’t resemble the book you actually receive.

A Handbook on Hanging is a Swiftian tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilization: the hangman. With barbed insouciance, Charles Duff writes not only of hanging but of electrocution, decapitations, and gassings; of innocent men executed and of executions botched; of the bloodlust of mobs and the shabby excuses of the great. This coruscating and, in contemporary America, very relevant polemic makes clear that whatever else capital punishment may be said to be--justice, vengeance, a deterrent--it is certainly killing.

This is a chronicle of hanging and other forms of capital punishment throughout history. It is also a tongue-in-cheek commentary on humankind's fervor for public executions and other grisly forms of entertainment.

Charles Duff wrote a charming book on executions and in particular English hangman. This book is a feigned tribute on executioners and in particular English executioners. Mr. Duff is arguing against capital punishment, but he does so without the cant of political correctness. Anyone who enjoys good humor will appreciate this book.

Mr. Duff presents vivid details of the English hangmen's "art" and uses hunmorous anecdotes of their fine craft in dispatching malafactors. There are humorous examples of how the English hangmen used mathematics and careful study of the intended victims so that executions can be as painless and as quick as possible. Mr. Duff traces the improvements in public executions since Anglo-Saxon England and after the Conquest (1066). He comments on "Merrie Ole England" when the Tudors used hanging along with drawing-and-quartering which some of the English refer to as "The good old days."

Mr. Duff cites examples of State sponsored executions whereby the condemned was actually innocent, but the State or Crown had to have their "pound of flesh" regardless of errors in justice. Mr. Duff cites examples where "court experts" were either wrong or perjured themselves so that an execution could take place, the hangmen could maintain gainful employment.

Readers should note that at the turn of the 19th century (the 1800s), there were 210 offenses for which hanging was the punishment for the crime. These crimes included poaching on royal land, theft of five shillings (less than the value of a dollar), etc. Mr. Duff cites associating with gypsies as a capital offense, but he could not understand why associating with politicians was not included.

For sheer humor, Mr. Duff uses a hypothetical case of the owner of butcher shop who caught his wife having an affair with an employee. Mr. Duff's description of the blow-by-blow brawl is amusing to say the least. This amusing anecdote starts on page 92.

Mr. Duff also feigns and enterprising spirit when he suggested that film directors, television executives, media sponsors use their talents to publicly present executions to the fun and amusement of a population with moroffer interests in such events.

Mr. Duff pretends to show the shock of unemployed executioners just because of botched executions which resulted in decapitation, prolonged suffering, etc. However, Mr. Duff uses the judges' instructions that the condemned be hanged until dead regardless of the time or suffering.

A Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff 1928 PLEASE SEE VIDEO

$140.00

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