Dimensions
229 x 152 x 13mm
A manifesto and handbook for those who want to work against capital punishment.
Capital Punishment, renounced as archaic by almost all modern countries, is an increasingly hot topic in America. As a parade of wrongly convicted inmates are freed from death row we wonder, can capital punishment be an effective tool of justice or is it merely institutionalised vengeance - barbaric and obsolete?
Not the usual dry, pro-and-con presentation of the death penalty debate, 'Death Defying' is a fresh and different look at capital punishment. Author-activist Pam McAllister grapples with the complex underlying issues of violence and victimisation, the natural desire for revenge in an age of terrorism, and the hope for healing.
Elevating her subject from grim to engrossing, McAllister utilises an eclectic array of images, lessons, and metaphors - with sources ranging from the fine arts to pop culture, opera to folk songs, Hamlet to Harry Potter.
Even McAllister's historic overview of capital punishment is new, offbeat, and surprising, taking readers from the days when disrespecting one's parents, pickpocketing and even laziness were capital offenses, through the Middle Ages when animals (a rooster charged with the crime of egg-laying!) and inanimate objects could be put on trial and sentenced to death, to today's clinical death by lethal injection in death chambers that look like public toilets.
This book will galvanise readers - from concerned couch potatoes to seasoned activists - with inspiring ideas of how we can help dismantle the machinery of death and break the cycle of violence and revenge.
