electrocution

"Early in the twentieth century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey, slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time an Indian elephant was deliberately and publicly put to death by electricity in Coney Island . . . Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and wrongs crying out to be righted"--OCLC.

Traces the history of capital punishment in America, focusing on the electric chair. Discusses the electric chair's development, use, and famous recipients with their last meals, as well as the controversy surrounding it and the rise of lethal injection.

Discusses the controversial position of Thomas Edison who opposed the death penalty, and yet championed the use of the electric chair as being more humane for executions.