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The Thirteenth Turn: A History of the Noose Hardcover – Illustrated, August 26, 2014

by Jack Shuler (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
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The story of a rope, a symbol, and rough justice in America.

The hangman's knot is a simple thing to tie, just a rope carefully coiled around itself up to thirteen times. But in those thirteen turns lie a powerful symbol, one that is all too deeply connected to America's past -- and present.

The last man to be hanged in the United States was Billy Bailey, who was executed in Delaware in 1996 for committing a double murder. Even today, hanging is still legal, in certain situations, in New Hampshire and Washington. And the noose remains a potent cultural symbol. An incident in Jena, Louisiana, in 2006, in which nooses were used to menace black students, made national news. Yet little has changed: according to author Jack Shuler, there have been nearly 100 "noose incidents" just in the last two years.

The Thirteenth Turn unravels these stories, from Judas Iscariot, perhaps the most infamous hanged man, to the killing of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the murderers at the heart of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and beyond. In his travels across America, Shuler traces the evolution of this dark practice. As he investigates the death of John Brown, or the 1930 lynching that inspired the song "Strange Fruit," he finds that the very places that perpetrated these acts now seek to forget them.

Shuler's account is a kind of shadow history of America: a reminder that vigilantes and hangmen play a crucial role in our national story. The Thirteenth Turn is a courageous and searching book that reminds us where we come from, and what is lost if we forget.
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  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    PublicAffairs
  4. Publication date
    August 26, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    6.38 x 1.13 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1610391365
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1610391368
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Richly researched and beautifully written, this is an essential history of our country”—Boston Globe

“Thoroughly engaging… a finely tuned study”—Washington Post

“A book that is as haunting as its subject”—CHOICE

“In-depth reportage... a comprehensive, remarkable and necessary examination of our country's ugly past”—Truthdig

“Transfixing… a panoramic, unforgettable rendering”—Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*

“The Thirteenth Turn is a thoughtful, profound book. Jack Shuler has taken an object we are all too familiar with in our history-the noose-and found in its story an urgent lesson on how to live." —Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents

About the Author

Jack Shuler holds the John and Christine Warner Chair at Denison University, where he is an associate professor teaching American literature and Black Studies. He is the author of two books on the nexus of race and violence in America, Calling Out Liberty and Blood and Bone. Shuler's criticism, interviews, reviews, and poems have appeared in the Columbia Journal of American Studies, Journal of Southern History, South Carolina Review, Southern Studies, and Failbetter, among others. He lives in Ohio.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs; Illustrated edition (August 26, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1610391365
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610391368
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.13 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

About the author

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Jack Shuler

Jack Shuler

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Jack Shuler is John and Christine Warner professor and associate professor of English at Denison University where he teaches American literature, Black Studies, and narrative non-fiction writing. He holds a Ph.D. in English (Graduate Center – CUNY, 2007) and an MFA in Poetry (Brooklyn College, 2001).

He is the author of Calling Out Liberty: The Stono Slave Rebellion and the Universal Struggle for Human Rights (Mississippi University Press, 2009), Blood and Bone: Truth and Reconciliation in a Southern Town (University of South Carolina Press, 2012), The Thirteenth Turn: A History of the Noose (PublicAffairs, 2014), This is Ohio: The Overdose Crisis and the Front Lines of a New America (Counterpoint, 2020), and Midland: Reports from Flyover Country (Tiller/Simon and Schuster), 2020.

Shuler’s writing has appeared in The New Republic, Pacific Standard, The Atlantic, Salon, Los Angeles Times, Truthout, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Journal of Southern History, Columbia Journal of American Studies, Hanging Loose, and Failbetter, among others.

He has been on HuffPost Live and on WNPR, WOSU, KERA, and Pacifica radio stations.

For more information, see www.jackshulerauthor.com

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
18 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Edward J. Zemaitis
5.0 out of 5 stars a very good read.
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2014
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Interesting book, looking the history of the noose and lynching, since biblical times. Well written and most comprehensive. Considering the subject, a very good read.
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Philip Rittenberg
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2014
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not finished yet but it is a great historical treatise.Why doesnt it appear on the best seller lists?
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Israel
5.0 out of 5 stars Great seller
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2015
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I recieved the product very quickly and was as described
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2015
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Excellent read, well researched and beautifully written!
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lyndonbrecht
5.0 out of 5 stars The noose is an artifact, but was and remains part of a technology of terror used particularly to intimidate minorities.
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2016
This is a very difficult book to describe. It is not really a history of the noose or of lynching, although it has a good deal of historical background on those things. It is best described as a personal exploration of the noose as a symbol in American culture. That may not sound very promising, but this is a good read, written in a solid sort of journalistic style, by a college professor. His research seems thorough, in some ways almost obsessive, traveling hundreds of miles to view artifacts such as an alleged John Brown execution noose--but he interviews many people, who might be called custodians of memory. He consults authorities in a number of places, including Denmark (for Tollund Man, found in a bog with a noose around his neck, several thousand years old.

He attempts to understand, and then explain, what the noose means in American culture in the 21st century. What does it mean when a civil rights activist gets a miniature noose sent in a package, or when a noose is found hanging from a tree branch where black students congregate? The book starts mildly enough, exploring what a noose looks like with different knots and kinds of rope. Some of this is macabrely amusing, but an expert in knots (Shuler consults one) can tell whether the noose maker was left or right handed, and more. The common presumption is that being hanged snaps the neck and results in a quick death, but Shuler notes that often it is simply prolonged strangulation.

He discusses several incidents when a number of people were hanged. Two slave rebellions in New York City, the Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner and other rebellions, the hanging of 40 suspected Union sympathizers in Texas, of 38 Dakota men after the short but gory conflict in Minnesota, among others--and then he discusses hangings more or less isolated in Midwestern cities such as Lima, Ohio. He did miss one, the mass hanging of Irish deserters in the Mexican War (they deserted US forces and fought for Mexico). This is not easy reading, as lynching totals accumulate and lynching terrorism is thought to have had 4,000 to 5,000 victims from Reconstruction times through the 1930s (it's not clear to me if these estimates include vigilante events in the West, which killed a sizable number of Mexican Americans, Chinese, as well as some for-real criminals).

Where the book starts having a real emotional impact is the chapter on the hangings of Dakota (for various reasons. "Sioux" is not very appropriate) men in Minnesota; more than 300 were sentenced to die, but Lincoln pardoned all but 38. This nasty little conflict is rarely considered, being overwhelmed by the larger events of the Civil War, but as this chapter makes plain, the pain remains and is very much alive in contemporary Dakota
life. How is that relevant? Well, given the thousands of black people hanged, the noose has a potent and infamous history, like the Confederate flags that have recently gotten so much attention.

The conclusion may not be very palatable to some readers, but the noose is a very much alive symbol representing an extremely violent threat based on an extremely violent history. It was used as a technology of control and terrorism to keep black people in line and to reinforce white supremacy. Nitpickers will point out that of those thousands of lynchings, more than a thousand were white people and included Italians (one famous incident in New Orleans hanged some Italians), among others. This is no joking matter, even if nooses have sometimes been presented as jokes. This book explains that.
5 people found this helpful
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William L.
3.0 out of 5 stars Not really history- prepare for commentary
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2015
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Very sparse treatment of noose and haninging in ch. 1; lots of lefty anti analysis in remainder of book.
2 people found this helpful
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Craffy M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Researched compulsively but then crafted in a highly readable style ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2014
Researched compulsively but then crafted in a highly readable style, this history sheds much light on a practice that is still used to intimidate and control in pockets all over the globe. A very engrossing read..
2 people found this helpful
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Anyanka
5.0 out of 5 stars Unputdownable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2023
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This was a superb book. Sensitive to the subject and well written.
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Cordless Iron Man
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended: a thoughtful exploration of a hate symbol
Reviewed in Canada on July 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
A deep examination of the symbolic power of the noose and the source of that power – its history. While it was written a few years ago this is a timely book (for Spring/Summer 2020), and I can imagine a final chapter examining the relationship of police violence to the noose, specifically in the context of George Floyd’s murder.

The book is well-paced and exhaustive without getting lost in minutiae. The prose is natural and clear, as well as honest, personal and refreshingly vulnerable. I look forward to reading more from Mr. Schuler.
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Pauline Stoiber
5.0 out of 5 stars Was menschen menschen antun
Reviewed in Germany on August 24, 2017
Verified Purchase
Sehr genau recherchiert, schreckliches thema, über das man sich aber auch informieren sollte, nichts hat sich geändert bei den white supremacists, a shame!
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