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The Last Gasp : The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber by Christianson, Scott is a history book available to read on EtoBox.

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From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Investigative journalist Christianson, author of the award-winning With Liberty for Some, charts the 75-year history of gas chamber execution as well as its intersection with eugenics, the Holocaust, and America's ongoing capital punishment debate. Christianson is clear that his focus is the United States, underscoring that the chamber's operation can hardly be described as painless or kind. After the Germans launched the first gas attack during WWI, American scientists and chemical companies—particularly DuPont, which had ties to the German manufacturers that later supplied concentration camps—scrambled to produce their own lethal concoctions. From their earliest incarnations, gas chambers employed various forms of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) pumped into a sealed room where the condemned was strapped to a chair. Despite being developed as a swifter and more painless alternative to death than hanging or electrocution, Christianson describes in graphic detail the numerous botched executions during which death took over 10 agonizing minutes. Though the gas chamber hasn't been used in America since 1999, Christianson makes a chilling argument for i

Who reads The Last Gasp : The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber?

Author

Christianson, Scott

Publisher

University of California Press

Published

2010

Language

EN

ISBN

9780520255623

Category

history

Subjects

Social Science, Fiction, History

Rating

3.44 / 5 (30 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14