The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau - Psychiatry and the Law in the Gilded Age

In this brilliant study, Charles Rosenberg uses the celebrated trial of Charles Guiteau, who assassinated President Garfield in 1881, to explore insanity and criminal responsibility in the Gilded Age. Rosenberg masterfully reconstructs the courtroom battle waged by twenty-four expert witnesses who represented the two major schools of psychiatric thought of the generation immediately preceding Freud.
Although the role of genetics in behavior was widely accepted, these psychiatrists fiercely debated whether heredity had predisposed Guiteau to assassinate Garfield. Rosenberg's account allows us to consider one of the opening rounds in the controversy over the criminal responsibility of the insane, a debate that still rages today.

List of contents

1: July the Second 2: September 8, 1841-July 2, 1881 Charles J. Guiteau 3: The Prisoner, Psychiatry, and the Law 4: Before the Trial 5: The Trial Begins 6: Enter Dr. Spitzka 7: Interlude 8: The Trial Ends 9: The Condemned 10: Aftermath A Note on Sources Index

Summary

By analyzing the trial of Charles Guiteau, who assassinated US President Garfield in 1881, this text explores insanity and criminal responsibility in the late-19th century. Although the role of genetics in behaviour had been accepted, the trial debated whether heredity influenced Guiteau's actions.

Product details

• Authors: Charles E. Rosenberg, Charles E Rosenburg
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.10.1995
• EAN: 9780226727172
• ISBN: 978-0-226-72717-2
• No. of pages: 308
• Dimensions: 216 mm x 140 mm x 22 mm
• Weight: 436 g
• Series: Psychiatry and the Law in the; Emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith; mersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Law > Criminal law, criminal procedural law, criminology