The Hanging Tree Execution and the English People 1770-1868 [Paperback]

Hanging people for petty crimes as well as grave, the Bloody Penal Code was at its most active between 1770 and 1830. Some 7,000 men and women were executed on public scaffolds, watched by crowds of thousands.
This acclaimed study is the first to explore what a wide range of peoplefeltabout these ceremonies. Gatrell draws on letters, diaries, ballads, broadsides, and images, as well as on poignant appeals for mercy which, until now, have been largely neglected by historians. Panoramic in range, scholarly in method, and compelling in style and in argument, this is one of those rare histories which both shift our sense of the past and speak powerfully to the present.

This is a powerful, committed, and well-written book. --Financial Times

Gatrell's sensitive and elaborate reconstructions of ciminal cases, appeals to mercy, and executions are the strength of this important and provocative study. --Times Literary Supplement

Brilliant and passionately argued....Gatrell writes with flair and imagination. This work will receive the wide audience it deserves. --CHOICE

Brilliant book. --The Guardian

V.A.C. unflinchingly confronts his readers with the reality of capital punishment. [The book] marks an advance in historiography by synthisizing the statistical work for which he was previously known with the history of popular culture and the history of ideas and political reform. --Journal ofModern History

[A] powerful, engaged, and imprssive book. --The Albion

Gatrell'sThe Hanging Treeis a book that is often interesting and full of useful insights...it is an important contribution to the history of crime and justice. --City Crowds and Criminal History

V.A.C. Gatrellis Fellow of Caius and University Lecturer in the Faculty of History at Cambridge University.