BOOKS: ​“Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition”

A new book by David Garland, ​“Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition,” offers a fresh per­spec­tive on why the death penal­ty endures in the United States when so many oth­er coun­tries in the Western world have already abol­ished it. The book seeks to under­stand the per­sis­tence of the death penal­ty in the U.S. as a social fact, using soci­o­log­i­cal, his­tor­i­cal and legal analy­ses to explain the unique and pecu­liar man­ner in which the death penal­ty is applied. Garland con­cludes that the death penal­ty has sur­vived in the United States because it is deeply con­nect­ed to the fun­da­men­tal­ly American insti­tu­tions of local auton­o­my and pop­u­lar democ­ra­cy. Anthony Amsterdam, Professor of Law at New York University, said of this book, ​“This is indis­pens­able read­ing for stu­dents of crim­i­nal jus­tice, race, and American cul­ture, for lawyers and judges in the path­ways of death, and for all who want to under­stand why our coun­try can nei­ther put cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to any good use nor put an end to it.”

David Garland is Arthur T. Vandebilt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at New York University. He has also writ­ten ​“The Culture of Control” (2002) and ​“Punishment and Modern Society” (1990). (D. Garland, ​“Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition,” October 1, 2010, Harvard University Press). Read more Books on the death penalty.