The Guillotine: Grandfather Clock of Death (1/2)
Download MP3In celebration of Bastille Day, enjoy this 2-part episode on the guillotine. Find out:
- How a death penalty abolitionist became the namesake the world's most famous execution machine
- What makes the guillotine such an effective but unwieldy political tool
- Which treacherous wizard witnessed France's final public guillotining
References:
Camus, Albert. (1957). Reflections on the Guillotine. Translated by Richard Howard. Evergreen.
Logevall, Fredrik. (2012). Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam. Random House.
Smith, Philip. (2003). "Narrating the Guillotine: Punishment Technology as Myth and Symbol." Theory, Culture & Society 20(5): 27–51.
