Author: Craig Brandon File Type: epub Since its first use in 1890, the electric chair has been the means of legal execution for over 4,300 individuals in 23 states. Its use in recent years has steadily declined, and nowadays many states use the chair only as a museum display. This book provides a history of the electric chair and analyzes its features, its development, and the manner of its use. Chapters cover the early conceptual stages as a humane alternative to hanging, and the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse that was one of the main forces in the chairs adoption as a mode of execution. Also presented are an account of the terrible first execution and a number of the subsequent gruesome employments of the chair. The text explores the changing attitudes toward the chair as state after state replaces it with lethal injection.

Author: Slava Gerovitch File Type: pdf In this remarkable oral history, Slava Gerovitch presents interviews with the men and women who witnessed Soviet space efforts firsthand. Rather than comprising a master narrative, these fascinating and varied accounts bring to light the often divergent perspectives, experiences, and institutional cultures that defined the Soviet space program. bSlava Gerovitchb is Lecturer in History of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Author: Armin Grünbacher File Type: pdf West German Industrialists and the Making of the Economic Miracle investigates the mentality of post-war German (heavy) industrialists through an analysis of their attitudes, thinking and views on social, political and, of course, economic matters at the time, including the social market economy and how they saw their own role in society, with this investigation taking place against the backdrop of the economic miracle and the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s. The book also includes an assessment of whether the self-declared, new aristocracy of merit justified its place in society and carried out its actions in a new spirit of political responsibility. This is an important text for all students interested in the history of Germany and the modern economic history of Europe. **Review The book shows a masterful grasp of German archival material and academic literature, particularly beneficial for experts who do not know German Grunbacher has produced a significant book on the history of entrepreneurs mentality during the West German economic miracle that will be a very useful resource for scholars and postgraduate students interested in the economic and political history of Germany. - The Historian Book Description This book investigates the mentality and attitudes of post-war German industrialists during the period of reconstruction and the economic miracle.

Author: Kirsten MacLeod File Type: pdf In American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle, Kirsten MacLeod examines the rise of a new print media form the little magazine and its relationship to the transformation of American cultural life at the turn of the twentieth century. Though the little magazine has long been regarded as the preserve of modernist avant-gardes and elite artistic coteries, for whom it served as a form of resistance to mass media, MacLeods detailed study of its origins paints a different picture. Combining cultural, textual, literary, and media studies criticism, MacLeod demonstrates how the little magazine was deeply connected to the artistic, social, political, and cultural interests of a rising professional-managerial class. She offers a richly contextualized analysis of the little magazines position in the broader media landscape namely, its relationship to old and new media, including pre-industrial print forms, newspapers, mass-market magazines, fine press books, and posters. MacLeods study challenges conventional understandings of the little magazine as a genre and emphasizes the power of little media in a mass-market context.ReviewKirsten McLeods American Little Magazines is the essential, comprehensive account of the U.S little magazines of the turn of the twentieth century. Many books contribute to a field this is that rare book that defines a field. Everyone who does research on print culture in these years will consult it again and again.(Patrick Collier, Department of English, Ball State University) Kirsten MacLeod is by far the best qualified in the field of periodical studies to undertake a book of this scope and ambition. The impressive originality of the research explored in American Little Magazines is matched by the formidable breadth of resources consulted in both print culture and digital media.(Dean Irvine, Director, Agile Humanities Agency) About the Author Kirsten MacLeod is a lecturer in English Literature at Newcastle University (UK).