Colorful Humanistic History: The History of Punishment

Author: Karen, Farnell (English)
Publisher:
Publication Date: Not available
Features: Nearly a hundred famous paintings preserved in major museums around the world are included in the book. As you flip through the slightly yellowed paper, time seems to flow through your fingertips. Humans, proud of their high civilization, might not believe that their ancestors invented so many methods of torturing criminal suspects. These include human sacrifice, burial alive, boiling, drowning, nailing, hanging, beheading, being bitten by animals, or being stoned to death, and so on. The list of inventors of these varied tortures includes kings, nobles, clergy, and highly respected professionals. What is hard to imagine is that for a long time, the people of Europe would cheerfully gather to watch the execution of tortures as if celebrating a holiday. Civilization grew alongside bloodshed, and history finally turned a heavy page. We see torture gradually giving way to more humane punishments. In the dark Middle Ages, thieves and murderers were sentenced to death, which was also similar to the penal system of the 18th century. Those days, capital punishment had a dual meaning: on the one hand, to punish the criminal, and on the other, to appease the wrath of the gods. The condemned were often executed as sacrificial victims, with extremely brutal methods of punishment. Even when Christian doctrine spread across the world, there was no sign of improvement in the bloody punishments. The Romans and the barbarian tribes around them competed to use new and more painful methods of capital punishment, with countless martyrs. In fact, "A History of Punishment" is primarily the history of European punishment, although it also involves regions such as Asia, America, and Oceania, what we see more is the long shadow of judicial darkness hanging over Europe. The highly civilized Europeans might not believe that their ancestors could have invented so many methods of torturing criminal suspects. Until modern times, the condemned usually had only two choices—death or slavery.