The last gasp the rise and fall of the American gas chamber - Christianson, Scott 1947-2017 (University of California Press, 2010)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-310) and index
Introduction -- Envisioning the lethal chamber -- Fashioning a frightful weapon of war -- Devising "constructive peacetime uses" -- Staging the world's first gas execution -- "Like watering flowers" -- Pillar of respectability -- The rising storm -- Adapted for genocide -- Clouds of abolition -- The battle over capital punishment -- "Cruel and unusual punishment"? -- The last gasp -- Appendix 1. Earl C. Liston's patent application -- Appendix 2. Persons executed by lethal gas in the United States, by state, 1924-1999
The Last Gasp takes us to the dark side of human history in the first full chronicle of the gas chamber in the United States. In page-turning detail, award-winning writer Scott Christianson tells a dreadful story that is full of surprising and provocative new findings. First constructed in Nevada in 1924, the gas chamber, a method of killing sealed off and removed from the sight and hearing of witnesses, was originally touted as a "humane" method of execution. Delving into science, war, industry, medicine, law, and politics, Christianson overturns this mythology for good. He exposes the sinist