Book Review: Crimes of the Centuries: Notorious Crimes, Criminals, and Criminal Trials in American History

Abstract

This three-volume set’s biggest strength is its unique focus. While many encyclopedias of crime exist, focusing on types of criminals, locations of crimes, and types of punishments, I have yet to experience a set that focuses on the notoriety of the crimes it discusses. The introduction details the philosophy employed by the editors in choosing the content for this set, noting that they sought crimes that are notorious in the sense of uniqueness, newsworthiness, and timeliness to other political, social, or cultural happenings. A quick search of Amazon confirmed my suspicion that scholarly reference work on these types of crimes has been a niche in the literature that has remained, until recently, largely unfilled.