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A groundbreaking history of hanging and capitalism. In this new edition, Linebaugh reinforces his original arguments with an array of impressive historical sources.
Synopsis
In eighteenth-century London the spectacle of a hanging was not simply a form of punishing transgressors. Rather it evidently served the more sinister purpose - for a privileged ruling class - of forcing the poor population of London to accept the criminalization of customary rights and new forms of private property.