title: The Story of Cruel and Unusual (Boston Review Books)
author:  Colin Dayan 
description: The Iraqi war and the U.S. war on terror have brought the issue of torture to the forefront. Have our actions become too similar to those we have defined as terrorists? Current Bush administration policy as well as recent Supreme Court rulings and interpretations of cruel and unusual punishment have strained Eighth Amendment protections, particularly for those defined as "criminal" and by extension for illegal enemy combatants and others outside the protected class. Humanities professor Dayan traces the history of the debate about punishment to slavery in the American colonies, when inhumane punishment was permitted as long as it was administered humanely, with the judgment regarding cruelty always favoring the slaveholder's interest over the slave's. Post-Reconstruction, the debate about humane punishment shifted from slaves to criminals, who were not extended the equal protection now purportedly extended to others. Dayan maintains that our history of slavery and dehumanization of the imprisoned have created the climate of tolerance toward abuse and torture revealed at Abu Ghraib. <i>Vernon Ford</i><br><i>Copyright &#169; American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
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  THE BRUTAL TELLING
  
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  ALSO BY LOUISE PENNY
  
    
  
   _A Rule Against Murder_
  
   _The Cruelest Month_
  
   _A Fatal Grace_
  
   _Still Life_
  
    
    
  
  LOUISE PENNY
  
  ![](Images/image00257.jpeg)
  
   **THE**  
   **BRUTAL**  
   **TELLING**
  
  ![](Images/image00258.jpeg)
  
  MINOTAUR BOOKS ![](Images/image00259.jpeg) NEW YORK
  
  ![](Images/image00260.jpeg)
  
    
    
    
    
  
  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events
  portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are
  used fictitiously.
  
    
  
  THE BRUTAL TELLING. Copyright © 2009 by Louise Penny. All rights reserved.
  Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s
  Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
  
    
  
  [ _www.minotaurbooks.com_](http://www.minotaurbooks.com)
  
    
  
  Grateful acknowledgment is given for permission to reprint the following:
  
    
  
  “The Bells of Heaven” by Ralph Hodgson is used by kind permission of Bryn Mawr
  College.
  
    
  
  Excerpts from 