| Description |
1 online resource (xiv, 325 pages) : illustrations |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-310) and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction -- 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 -- 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. |
| Summary |
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 sinist. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Gas chambers -- United States -- History.
|
|
Gas chambers. |
|
United States. |
|
History. |
|
Capital punishment -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Capital punishment. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
|
1900 - 1999 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
|
Electronic books -- History.
|
|
History.
|
|
Electronic books -- History.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Christianson, Scott. Last gasp. Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, ©2010 9780520255623 (DLC) 2009052476 (OCoLC)449860842 |
| ISBN |
9780520945616 (electronic book) |
|
0520945611 (electronic book) |
|
128269765X |
|
9781282697652 |
|
9780520255623 |
|
0520255623 |
| Standard No. |
9786612697654 |
|
