Executing Freedom: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States

In the mid—1990s, as public trust in big government was near an all—time low, 80% of Americans told Gallup that they supported the death penalty. Why did people who didn’t trust government to regulate the economy or provide daily services nonetheless believe that it should have the power to put its citizens to death?

That question is at the heart of Executing Freedom, a powerful, wide—ranging examination of the place of the death penalty in American culture and how it has changed over the y...