Irene Quenzler Brown

An exemplary microhistory, this one of an 1806 execution in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Ephraim Wheeler, a poor farmer, was convicted and hanged for committing rape against his own 13-year-old daughter, and the Browns reconstruct the trial and its aftermath ably. They use the case as a jumping-off point to explore the use of capital punishment in early national Massachusetts, the crime of incestuous rape, and the political swirlings around the case (though they might, perhaps, have done a bit more with this last).

Difficult to read in places, but very clearly written and excellently researched.… (altro)