The End of the Rod: A History of the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in the Courts of England and Wales

The End of the Rod describes the tortuous steps that led to the abolition of corporal punishment as a sentence of the courts in England and Wales in 1948. It seeks to give voice to the key actors in the process: civil servants and politicians, along with those actually inflicting and experiencing that corporal punishment. It uses a variety of archival material and original sources to achieve this. The account begins in the late nineteenth century and traces debates, negotiations, and manoeu...