Civilizing Torture
eBook - PDF

Civilizing Torture

An American Tradition

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Civilizing Torture

An American Tradition

About this book

Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Silver Gavel Award Finalist


"A sobering history of how American communities and institutions have relied on torture in various forms since before the United States was founded."
—Los Angeles Times

"That Americans as a people and a nation-state are violent is indisputable. That we are also torturers, domestically and internationally, is not so well established. The myth that we are not torturers will persist, but Civilizing Torture will remain a powerful antidote in confronting it."
—Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell

"Remarkable…A searing analysis of America's past that helps make sense of its bewildering present."
—David Garland, author of Peculiar Institution

Most Americans believe that a civilized state does not torture, but that belief has repeatedly been challenged in moments of crisis at home and abroad. From the Indian wars to Vietnam, from police interrogation to the War on Terror, US institutions have proven far more amenable to torture than the nation's commitment to liberty would suggest.

Civilizing Torture traces the history of debates about the efficacy of torture and reveals a recurring struggle to decide what limits to impose on the power of the state. At a time of escalating rhetoric aimed at cleansing the nation of the undeserving and an erosion of limits on military power, the debate over torture remains critical and unresolved.

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Yes, you can access Civilizing Torture by W. Fitzhugh Brundage in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Military & Maritime History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction. A Question of Civilization
  7. 1. The Manners of Barbarians
  8. 2. Discipline in a Young Democracy
  9. 3. Cruelty and the Paradox of Slave Property
  10. 4. Torture in the Brothers’ War
  11. 5. Imperialist Excesses
  12. 6. Police Station Trespasses
  13. 7. Cold War Brutality
  14. 8. The Enemy Within
  15. Notes
  16. Acknowledgments
  17. Illustration Credits
  18. Index