Overview

Full Product Details

9780195132496

Table of Contents

Reviews

Drawing on a variety of methods, data, and theoretical frameworks, Professor Haines skillfully crafts a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the dynamics of the movement to abolish the death penalty in the United States. It is scholarly yet engaging, critical yet sympathetic, and topical yet important. Social movement scholars, criminologists, activists, and other observers will find this first extensive account of anti-death penalty activism since the ten-year moratorium on executions ended captivating and provocative. --Robert D. Benford, University of Nebraska<br> Herb Haines tells the compelling recent story of one of the nation's oldest social movements. His tale picks up after organized opposition to the death penalty nearly succeeded in seeing capital punishment abolished in 1972, and it follows the movement's change of direction as hope faded that the U.S. Supreme Court would deliver on its promise to keep the death penalty free of arbitrariness and racial bias, or do away with it. Haines' book presents a uniquely critical but sympathetic appraisal of where the anti-death penalty movement now stands, and what directions it should take. --William J. Bowers, Ph.D., Northeastern University<br> Mr. Haines' book is a clearly written and well-informed account of the struggles against the death penalty in America over the last two decades. Reading about the passions and commitment of those opposing executions is bound to give pause to even the closest friends of the executioner. --Michael L. Radelet, University of Florida<br> The most important theoretical task in current social movement theory is the integration of organizational and culturalist approaches to movementdynamics. Haines provides us with a model of theoretical syncretism applied to an important empirical case. He makes both the movement's successes and its failures understandable. Against Capital Punishment will no doubt become a standard on social movement bibliographies. - -Rhys H. Williams, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale<br> Herbert H. Haines's fine book, Against Capital Punishment, is a compelling study of the anti-death penalty movement in America today, a vital but largely unstudied issue. This humane book is a must read for serious students of capital punishment. --Robert Johnson, Professor and Chair of the Department of Justice, Law and Society, American University, and author, Condemned to Die: Life Under Sentence of Death and Death Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process<br>

<br> Drawing on a variety of methods, data, and theoretical frameworks, Professor Haines skillfully crafts a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the dynamics of the movement to abolish the death penalty in the United States. It is scholarly yet engaging, critical yet sympathetic, and topical yet important. Social movement scholars, criminologists, activists, and other observers will find this first extensive account of anti-death penalty activism since the ten-year moratorium on executions ended captivating and provocative. --Robert D. Benford, University of Nebraska<br> Herb Haines tells the compelling recent story of one of the nation's oldest social movements. His tale picks up after organized opposition to the death penalty nearly succeeded in seeing capital punishment abolished in 1972, and it follows the movement's change of direction as hope faded that the U.S. Supreme Court would deliver on its promise to keep the death penalty free of arbitrariness and racial bias, or do awa

Drawing on a variety of methods, data, and theoretical frameworks, Professor Haines skillfully crafts a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the dynamics of the movement to abolish the death penalty in the United States. It is scholarly yet engaging, critical yet sympathetic, and topical yet important. Social movement scholars, criminologists, activists, and other observers will find this first extensive account of anti-death penalty activism since the ten-year moratorium on executions ended captivating and provocative. --Robert D. Benford, University of Nebraska Herb Haines tells the compelling recent story of one of the nation's oldest social movements. His tale picks up after organized opposition to the death penalty nearly succeeded in seeing capital punishment abolished in 1972, and it follows the movement's change of direction as hope faded that the U.S. Supreme Court would deliver on its promise to keep the death penalty free of arbitrariness and racial bias, or do away with it. Haines' book presents a uniquely critical but sympathetic appraisal of where the anti-death penalty movement now stands, and what directions it should take. --William J. Bowers, Ph.D., Northeastern University Mr. Haines' book is a clearly written and well-informed account of the struggles against the death penalty in America over the last two decades. Reading about the passions and commitment of those opposing executions is bound to give pause to even the closest friends of the executioner. --Michael L. Radelet, University of Florida The most important theoretical task in current social movement theory is the integration of organizational and culturalist approaches to movement dynamics. Haines provides us with a model of theoretical syncretism applied to an important empirical case. He makes both the movement's successes and its failures understandable. Against Capital Punishment will no doubt become a standard on social movement bibliographies. - -Rhys H. W

Author Information

Herbert H. Haines is Associate Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Cortland. He is the author of Black Radicals and the Civil Rights Mainstream, 1954-1970 (1988), which was selected as an Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available