Book Review: Pfeifer, M. J. (2006). Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 245

DOI10.1177/0734016807310608
Published date01 December 2007
Date01 December 2007
AuthorFrank Morn
Subject MatterArticles
Pfeifer, M. J. (2006). Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society,
1874-1947. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 245
DOI: 10.1177/0734016807310608
Reviewing historical books for criminal justice readers can be a challenging task. That
which is exciting, interesting, and relevant to a historian may not be so for the professor and
student of criminology or criminal justice. It is a considerable feat for a book to bridge that
gap. Michael Pfeifer’s tantalizing book on Rough Justice does the job nicely.
The title itself is suggestive. As the subtitle indicates, rough has to do with lynching of
felons or suspected felons between 1874 and 1947. It is a populist demonstration of righting
a societal wrong. However, more than that, lynching is a resistance and criticism of modern
developments in criminal justice.
The word justice in the title is even more suggestive and germane. It begs that ancient
question: What is justice? Is it some abstract notion of restoring a cosmic harmony, of making
things right, of giving victims a measure of satisfaction? Or is it an orderly, bureaucratic,
neutral, fair process? In point of fact, it is the conflict of those ideas—along regional, class,
ethnic, and ideological lines—that form the thesis of Pfeifer’s work.
Pfeifer believes that lynching and innovations in criminal justice, particularly the rise of
capital punishment, can be seen as skirmishes in the Kulturkampf between rural working-
class people who wanted to participate directly in the justice process and the emerging middle
class striving for orderliness and propriety. As the author states in the epilogue, “the history
of lynching and the history of the death penalty in the United States are deeply and hopelessly
entangled.”
Pfeifer divides the United States into four sections—Northeast, the South, the Midwest,
and the West—and examines the extent, causes, and demise of lynching. Numerous grizzly
lynchings for each region are recounted. An appendix lists the vast number of victims in the
four regions of the studies. The number boggles the mind. Certainly the South, with its
ongoing quest to maintain White supremacy, is no surprise. However, even here, as is the
case in Louisiana, there were differences. Northern Louisiana, for example, had many more
lynchings than in the Mississippi delta and Sugarland regions of the state with their different
class and ethnic makeup. The Midwest and West were similar with rural folk more likely
practitioners of rough justice than the emerging town bourgeoisies. The Northeast, though
bursting at the seams with immigrant and working-class populations, had even less lynching.
When it did appear, it was most likely to be in the village groves than the city alleyways of
the region.
Although mobs came in various sorts—mass mobs, posses, private lynchings, and terrorists
mobs—they all shared the rejection of the law, courts, and prisons. Lynching became ritualistic.
Site selection was important and suggestive. Sometimes it occurred at the place of the crime,
but of more interest, flaunting official authority, lynching was done near the court house or
jail. Last-minute public confessions were sought as a means to legitimize the event. Hanging
was the preferred way again mimicking and scorning official authority and practices. So as
to broaden public participation—to be truly democratic, we might say—the dead body was
frequently riddled with bullets by many people. Then as a means to educate the people and
insult officials the victim was allowed to hang as a display for as long as possible.
Book Review(s) 483

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