The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History

Craig Brandon

McFarland, Mar 3, 2016 - Social Science - 285 pages

This book provides a history of the electric chair and analyzes its features, its development, and the manner of its use. Chapters cover the early conceptual stages as a humane alternative to hanging, and the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse that was one of the main forces in the chair's adoption as a mode of execution. Also presented are an account of the terrible first execution and a number of the subsequent gruesome employments of the chair. The text explores the changing attitudes toward the chair as state after state replaced it with lethal injection.

About the author

The late Craig Brandon was a professor at Keene State College in New Hampshire where he taught writing. He was also the author of numerous articles, a book of popular history, a newspaper journalist for two decades and served as an on-air expert for PBS, NBC, and History Channel television programs.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History
• Author: Craig Brandon
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: McFarland, 2016
• ISBN: 0786451017, 9780786451012
• Length: 285 pages
• Subjects: History / General; Social Science / Criminology; Social Science / Death & Dying