“as capital punishment fades into senescence, it is time to evaluate its long history…a useful foundation…Ward casts an unblinking eye…there is a story to be told about the consistent and pernicious influence of race and class…Ward performs the important task of making visible the long-buried life stories of those who would be otherwise lost forever”—The Journal of Southern History; “provides detailed information…hanged criminals were overwhelmingly poor and/or black…gives readers a sense of the political, economic, and social conditions in the city…excellent”—ARBA; “makes extensive use of original accounts.... In the litany of deaths it is very clear that most hanged were black and in poverty”—Reference & Research Book News.
