{"product_id":"a-handbook-on-hanging-isbn-9780940322677","title":"A Handbook on Hanging","description":"\u003ci\u003eA Handbook on Hanging\u003c\/i\u003e is a Swiftian tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilization: the hangman. With barbed insouciance, Charles Duff writes not only of hanging but of electrocution, decapitations, and gassings; of innocent men executed and of executions botched; of the bloodlust of mobs and the shabby excuses of the great. This coruscating and, in contemporary America, very relevant polemic makes clear that whatever else capital punishment may be said to be--justice, vengeance, a deterrent--it is certainly killing.\"In its literary aspect it is deftly done. Smoothly, earnestly,  unctuously the author carries on his defense of hanging as a fine art  and his plea for bigger and better and more frequent hangings, never for  a moment forgetting his pose or dropping his disguise, and never giving  the reader the least ground for suspecting his good faith...He has made  for the crusade against capital punishment a very effective stroke.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A  minor classic.\" —Dylan Thomas \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Likely  to upset the equanimity of upholders of capital punishment far more  than any ponderous tome of “high explosive” argument or invective.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles Duff\u003c\/b\u003e (1894–1966) served as an officer in the British Merchant  Navy during World War I and then in the intelligence division of the  Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service. After retiring, he taught  linguistics and languages in London and Singapore while writing travel  guides, histories, satires, and a series of textbooks. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChristopher Hitchens\u003c\/b\u003e (1949–2011) was a British-American journalist and  social critic. Known for his confrontational style and contrarian views  on a range of social issues, Hitchens was a frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003eThe Nation, The Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e. Hitchens recounts his struggle with esophageal cancer in \u003ci\u003eMortality\u003c\/i\u003e, which was published in 2012.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301345480933,"sku":"NP9780940322677","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780940322677.jpg?v=1767720513","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-handbook-on-hanging-isbn-9780940322677","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}