Table of Contents

Foreword / Douglas Hay

Acknowledgments

Introduction / Carolyn Strange

1. Civilized People Don't Want to See That Sort of Thing: TheDecline of Physical Punishment in London, 1760-1840 / Greg T.Smith

2. In Place of Death: Transportation, Penal Practices, and theEnglish State, 1770-1830 / Simon Devereaux

3. `Harshness and Forbearance': The Politics of Pardons and theUpper Canada Rebellion / Barry Wright

4. Savage Mercy: Native Culture and the Modification of CapitalPunishment in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia / TinaLoo

5. Discretionary Justice: Political Culture and the Death Penalty inNew South Wales and Ontario, 1890-1920 / Carolyn Strange

Punishment in Late-Twentieth-Century Canada: An Afterword /Anthony N. Doob

Promotional Information

A major contribution to the historiography of crime and punishment in the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth ... a profoundly scholarly and at the same time intensely practical evocation of the value of historical method in challenging the cant, myth-making, and simplistic grandstanding of those who see the solution to all our ills as lying in a return to retribution and punitiveness. -- John McLaren, University of Victoria This book contains original essays written by leading members of the new generation of historians concerned with criminal law and punishment ... the authors cause us to reflect on how the quest for justice and mercy that has characterized progressive penal policies is being eroded in the present climate of punitiveness. Given its enduring theme and exemplary research, Qualities of Mercy will not only serve as an important history for the present, but also as a lasting influence on scholarship in the future. -- Richard Erickson, University of British Columbia

About the Author

Carolyn Strange teaches at the Centre of Criminologyat the University of Toronto. She is the author of Toronto'sGirl Problem: The Perils and Pleasures of the City, 1880-1930.

Reviews

This thought-provoking and well-written book will be of particular interest to students of law, sociology, public policy, and criminal justice administration. -- Anna Leslie * Canadian Book Review Annual *