Table of Contents

Introduction: Reading and Writing a History of Punishment
Part I: The Roots of Modern Punishment in Pre-Modern Europe
1: The Fall and Rise of Rome: Compensation, Atonement, and Deterrence in the Early Middle Ages
2: Criminal Intent and Spectacular Punishment: The Infiltration of Roman Legal Theory and Practice into French Customary Law
PART II: Executioners and the Ritual of Execution
3: Extraordinary Beings: The Life and Work of Executioners
4: The Execution of Justice: The Ritual of Punishment in Medieval and Early Modern France
PART III: Spectators & Spectacle
5: From Ritual to Spectacle: The Rise of the Penal Voyeur in Early Modern France
6: Executions, Spectator Emotions, and the Naturalization of Sympathy
7: A Spectacular Crisis: Watching Executions in the Age of Sensibilité
Part IV: A Death Penalty for the Modern Age
8: Theorizing a New Death Penalty: Penal Reform on the Eve of the Revolution
9: Legislating the New Death Penalty: The Simple Deprivation of Life
10: Executing the New Death Penalty: The Invisible Spectacle of the Guillotine
Epilogue: The Play Over, The Actors (Slowly) Leave the Stage (1794-1939)
Conclusion: Punishment Past and Present

About the Author

Paul Friedland is an affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is currently a fellow of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University (2011-2012). His first book, Political Actors: Representative Bodies and Theatricality in the Age of the French Revolution (2002), was awarded the Pinkney Prize for the best book of the year by the Society for French Historical Studies.

Reviews

`Seeing Justice Done would be a worthwhile addition to any academic law library or other library seeking to enhance its legal history collection and to provide its users with a unique and educational book selection ... It is highly recommended.'
Susan Gualtier, Law Library Journal. Volume 105:3.
`Highly recommended.'
Choice Reviews
`This thoughtful and thought-provoking book is filled with interesting, arcane information. The argument is clear and the research admirable.'
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History