New Books Network Podcast Summary

Episode: Simon Devereux, "Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900"
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Professor Simon Devereux
Date: January 25, 2026
Book Discussed: Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

Episode Overview

This episode explores the deep transformation of capital and physical punishment in England from 1660 to 1900, as presented in Simon Devereux’s new book. The discussion unpacks the shift from intensely violent, 'medieval' executions to the modernization and eventual restriction of the death penalty. Key themes include the impact of urbanization, the evolution of societal and governmental attitudes toward punishment, and the interplay between changing legal practices, public morality, and social structures.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Simon Devereux’s Path to the Book

• Origins: Devereux’s book grew from years of research on capital punishment and a chapter that “exploded” into a 35,000-word survey (03:00). Transitioning from a textbook to an interpretative history, he sought a central organizing argument.
• Main Question: Why did modes of punishment in England change so rapidly and distinctly from other European countries? (03:55)

Urbanization and Its Consequences

• England's “precocious urbanization” is foregrounded as a core reason for shifting attitudes toward public and physical punishment (03:57).
• Urban elites, especially middling classes, influenced both the forms of punishment and assumptions about the educability and moral improvement of the lower classes (05:10).

The Civilizing Process and Changing Attitudes

• Drawing on Norbert Elias, Devereux discusses how public and elite sensibilities about violence underpinned penal reform (05:00).

• Sensibility and revulsion at public suffering came to challenge the legitimacy and effectiveness of gruesome executions, a sentiment evident by the mid-18th century (11:00).

  “We've arrived at a point in which people believe that the claims of society for a superlatively horrific physical punishment for purposes of deterring crime, maintaining social control, ... no longer outweigh the claims of the individual suffering body.”
  — Simon Devereux (11:46)

• Rise of secular, individual-centered thinking and a ‘culture of sensibility’ against unnecessary suffering.

Shifts in Execution Practices: Location and Scale

• England diverged from European norms: executions moved into city centers (from Tyburn to Newgate) while elsewhere in Europe they moved outward (14:00).
• Governing logic: maximize deterrence by targeting urban populations, but this approach soon produced strong public backlash (16:00).

The Problem with Mass Executions and Alternative Punishments

• Experiments in the 18th century—mass hangings, frequent executions—provoked disgust rather than deterrence, highlighting the diminishing returns of spectacle (17:35).
• The loss of transportation to America and need for penal alternatives led to the establishment of penal colonies in Australia and greater use of imprisonment, varying by region (19:00).

The Murder Act of 1752

• Instituted to quell Tyburn riots by restricting post-mortem dissection to convicted murderers, thus reconciling popular beliefs about bodily integrity with the needs of advancing medical education (22:30).

  “I'm trying to get at the way in which there are competing calculations, some of which seem unbelievably severe, some of which have clearly humanitarian intentions, and that these two things can be present at the same time.”
  — Simon Devereux (26:31)

• While the Act aimed to maintain order and supply bodies for anatomical study, it never fully met surgical demand, leading to grave robbing and infamous cases like Burke and Hare (30:30).

• The ultimate deterrent was perceived less as dissection and more as “denying a body a permanent Christian burial” (33:32).

The Anatomy Act of 1832 and the End of the Murder Act

• Replaced the Murder Act, shifting the supply of bodies for anatomy from executed murderers to paupers unclaimed by relatives (34:50).
• Retained the practice of burial within prison grounds, extending the punitive element of exclusion from a Christian resting place (35:45).

Privatizing Executions: The Move Behind Prison Walls

• From 1868, all executions conducted inside prisons; reporting by journalists made the events more imaginatively public, sometimes with greater visceral impact than public executions themselves (37:55).

  “In some ways, executions, if they're being reported by journalists, are more vividly public than they ever have been before.”
  — Simon Devereux (41:24)

• The state deferred decisions about journalistic attendance to local sheriffs, creating new dynamics around privacy, publicity, and the mediation of execution (41:40).

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On shifting moral thresholds:
  “There comes a point where any kind of punishment that is excessively physical ... the sense of horror at what's being done ... exceeds any sense that what is being done to them is justified by any sort of crime that they have committed.”
  — Simon Devereux (08:22)

• On dual goals in punishment:
  “People in the 18th century could walk and chew gum at the same time. They could have two, what might seem to us to be contradictory ideas in their head, but in the context of the world in which they live, those things may make perfect sense.”
  — Simon Devereux (26:37)

• On the spectacle of executions:
  “If you can't with legitimacy or effect hang that many people, then you've got to find a visibly severe enough alternative punishment...”
  — Simon Devereux (18:31)

Important Timestamps

| Segment | Topic | |---------|-------| | 02:30 | Devereux introduces his research and framing questions | | 04:47 | Urbanization and the “civilizing process” | | 06:59 | The failure of physical punishments as deterrence; impact of 1685 Bloody Assizes | | 10:22 | Shifting moral priorities: Individual body vs. societal need | | 13:32 | Comparative analysis: England’s urban execution practices vs. the Continent | | 17:03 | Problems with mass executions and rise of transportation | | 22:23 | The Murder Act: goals, problems, implementation | | 27:53 | Assessing the Murder Act’s effectiveness | | 34:53 | The Anatomy Act and changes in post-mortem punishment | | 37:47 | Move to private executions and new forms of publicity | | 42:51 | Forthcoming projects: publication of the Newgate chaplain’s diaries |

The Book’s Legacy and Future Research

• Devereux is publishing the diaries of Horace Salisbury Cotton, the prison chaplain of Newgate (1823–1838), providing new insight into the condemned’s final experiences (42:51).
• He hints at future research exploring the variable role of the press in reporting private executions and the state’s hands-off approach.

Conclusion

This episode provides a comprehensive and engaging tour through the evolution of English capital punishment, illuminating the complex drivers of legal and social change—urbanization, shifting elite and popular sensibility, practical demands of justice and medicine, and evolving concepts of decency and publicity. Devereux’s research not only re-interprets the chronology and context of reform but also highlights enduring tensions at the intersection of law, morality, and society.

For more, the book is Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 by Simon Devereux (Cambridge UP, 2023).