MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 02954cam a2200349 a 4500
001 012523803-7
005 20100707224605.0
008 091214s2010 caua b s001 0 eng
010 $a 2009052476
015 $aGBB039398$2bnb
016 7 $a015510875$2Uk
020 $a9780520255623 (cloth : alk. paper)
020 $a0520255623 (cloth : alk. paper)
035 0 $aocn449860842
035 $a(PromptCat)40018028970
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dYDX$dBTCTA$dERASA$dUKM$dYDXCP$dCDX
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aHV8699.U5$bC415 2010
082 00 $a364.66$222
100 1 $aChristianson, Scott.
245 14 $aThe last gasp :$bthe rise and fall of the American gas chamber /$cScott Christianson.
246 30 $aRise and fall of the American gas chamber
260 $aBerkeley :$bUniversity of California Press,$cc2010.
300 $axiv, 325 p. :$bill. ;$c24 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $apt. 1. The rise of the lethal chamber -- Envisioning the lethal chamber -- Fashioning a frightful weapon of war -- Devising "constructive peacetime uses" -- Staging the world's first gas execution -- "Like watering flowers" -- Pillar of respectability -- The rising storm -- Adapted for genocide -- pt. 2. The fall of the gas chamber -- Clouds of abolition -- The battle over capital punishment -- "Cruel and unusual punishment"? -- The last gasp -- Appendix 1: Earl C. Liston's patent application -- Appendix 2: Persons executed by lethal gas in the United States, by state, 1924-1999.
520 $a"The Last Gasp takes us to the dark side of human history in the first full chronicle of the gas chamber in the United States. In page-turning detail, award-winning writer Scott Christianson tells a dreadful story that is full of surprising and provocative new findings. First constructed in Nevada in 1924, the gas chamber, a method of killing sealed off and removed from the sight and hearing of witnesses, was originally touted as a 'humane' method of execution. Delving into science, war, industry, medicine, law, and politics, Christianson overturns this mythology for good. He exposes the sinister links between corporations looking for profit, the military, and the first uses of the gas chamber after World War I. He explores little-known connections between the gas chamber and the eugenics movement. Perhaps most controversially, he has unearthed new evidence about American and German collaboration in the production and lethal use of hydrogen cyanide and about Hitler's adoption of gas chamber technology developed in the United States. More than a book about the death penalty, this compelling history ultimately reveals much about America's values and power structures in the twentieth century."--Jacket.
650 0 $aGas chambers$zUnited States$xHistory.
650 0 $aCapital punishment$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century.
655 7 $aHistory.$2fast
988 $a20100707
906 $0DLC