The Big Book of Pain: Torture and Punishment Through HistoryFor millennia, mankind has devised ingenious and diabolical means of inflicting pain on fellow human beings. This deplorable but seemingly universal trait has eaten away at mankind’s very claim to civilisation. Despite how repugnant the practice of torture appears to us today, for at least 3,000 years it formed part of most legal codes throughout Europe and the Far East. The Big Book of Pain is an exploration of the systematic use throughout the ages of various means of punishment, torture, coercion and torment. It takes the reader into the Ancient Roman Coliseum, the medieval dungeon, the Inquisitional interrogation, the auto-da-fe, the witch-trial, and the worst of prisons. It is a shocking and compelling study of the shameful methods and motives of the torturer and the executioner, and of the heinous duty they have performed through the ages. |
Contents
Torture in the Medieval World | |
Torture in the Age of Reason | |
Reforms of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries | |
Torture by Burning and Branding | |
Torture by Crushing Smashing or Breaking | |
Torture by Cutting Piercing Tearing and Impaling | |
Torture by Restraint | |
Torture by Public Display Shame and Humiliation | |
Torture by Stretching Suspension | |
Torture by Water | |
Torture by Whipping | |
Other editions - View all
The Big Book of Pain: Torture and Punishment Through History Daniel Diehl,Mark Donnelly No preview available - 2008 |
The Big Book of Pain: Torture and Punishment Through History Mark P Donnelly,Daniel Diehl No preview available - 2012 |
The Big Book of Pain: Torture & Punishment Through History Mark P. Donnelly,Daniel Diehl No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
accused alive ankles arms arrested beheading blood body boiling bones branded Brazen Bull brodequin burning century chain Chinese Christian Church civilised collar condemned confess convicted court crime criminals crushed death device Devil drawing and quartering ducking stool dungeon early enemy England English Europe execution executioner extract feet fingers flagellants flesh flogging forced found guilty gibbet guillotine Halifax Gibbet hands hanged head Henry heresy heretics Hopkins human humiliation imposed inflicted innocent inquisitors interrogation iron Iron Maiden judicial kill King known lashes legs limbs locked man’s Matthew Hopkins medieval murder neck offences outlawed pain person pillory plumbatae prisoner’s prisoners punishment rack redhot reign ripped Roman rope scavenger’s daughter seems sentence slaves slowly society Spanish Inquisition spikes stake stool subjected suspected tied tongue took torture master Tower of London trial by ordeal Tyburn victim victim’s wheel whip witch witchcraft woman women wooden wrists