Rituals of Retribution signed by the author by Evans, Richard J.

Rituals of RetributionCapital Punishment in Germany 1600-1987\nAuthor(s): Richard J. Evans\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Oxford University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Oxford University Press\nISBN-13: 9780198219682, 978-0198219682\nSynopsis\nCOPYWRITER - Modern History section for 1996 cat\n\nThe state has no greater power over its own citizens than that of killing them. This book examines the use of that supreme sanction in Germany, from the seventeenth century to the present.\n\nRichard Evans analyses the system of `traditional' capital punishments set out in German law, and the ritual practices and cultural readings associated with them by the time of the early modern period. He shows how this system was challenged by Enlightenment theories of punishment and broke down under the impact of secularization and social change in the first half of the nineteenth century. The abolition of the death penalty became a classic liberal case which triumphed, if only momentarily, in the 194.