Edison and the Electric Chair (review)

With few exceptions, historians widely neglected the death penalty as a subject of their studies until just a few years ago. But recently the death penalty has been scrutinized more often in order to shed light on historically variable cultures and societies and their quandaries, and thus on a field of interest going far beyond the narrow scope of legal history in the strict sense of the term. In this broad area of research, the introduction of the electric chair is widely considered to mark the start of the modern era of capital punishment, and it has drawn specific attention among historical scholars. Mark Essig's book is one among several studies published since the late 1990s that discusses this notorious device within a larger history of late-nineteenth-century America and modernity.

As indicated by the title, Thomas Edison takes center stage in Essig's story. Yet this account of Edison and the electric chair is embedded in a larger history both in terms of chronology and content. For instance, at the beginning of the book Essig provides an overview of the history of electricity from the middle of the eighteenth century to the later nineteenth. In the subsequent chapter, he presents a sketch of Edison's life before he became famous as the "wizard of Menlo Park." Essig's narrative continues in more or less cyclical movements, detailing events such as the invention of the incandescent lamp and the construction of the Pearl Street power station, and issues such as the relationship of electricity and life and the history of the hanging ritual. These cyclical movements culminate in the invention of the electric chair, its institutionalization as an execution device in the State of New York, and the trial of William Kemmler from 1888 to 1890 and his execution.

Kemmler was the first person put to death in the electric chair. This climax is presented by Essig as an effect of historical forces such as the rapid urbanization of the northeastern United States, the culturally established notions of painlessness or speed, the increasing importance and influence of physicians and medicine in modern society, and the technological and economic competition between alternating current and direct current (and rivalry between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison) for the increasingly important power market. Though Essig recounts the story of the electric chair in all these different lines and shades, in the end it seems to be Thomas Edison's statement in the hearings of the Kemmler case, driven by his desire to discredit Westinghouse and alternating current, that appears as the decisive moment in favor of electric execution.

Considering Essig's obvious fascination with Edison's personality and position in late-nineteenth-century American society and culture, such an emphasis is not surprising. After all, this is a book about Edison and the electric chair, mainly based on the Edison Papers and contemporary press coverage. However, when writing about Edison himself, Essig tends to get lost in anecdotes and even in his own imagination. Meticulous descriptions of how Edison "threw off his coat and collar and plunged into a final check of his system" and then "put his coat and collar back on and synchronized watches with the station engineers" (p. 71), or how his future wife Mina Miller replied to his marriage proposal by tapping out "yes" in Morse code are tiring after a while.

Yet this is a fine book and worthwhile reading, and it is to be hoped that in the near future historians will take up this scholarly approach to technology, culture, and capital punishment and extend it to similar developments such as the invention and introduction of lethal injection in the context of late-twentieth-century culture and politics.