This is, to paraphrase Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins (authors of Capital Punishment and the American Agenda), "yet another book on capital punishment." From the glowing reviews on the back cover, written by such luminaries as Elie Wiesel and George Will, one would think this volume would be comprehensive and indispensable. The reality is different. In a field of Alis and Sugar Rays, this contender is a flyweight. The book is a mere 122 pages including a brief epilogue, and its brevity is an index of its diminutiveness. Compare the 1995 Punishment and the Death Penalty: The Current Debate (Baird and Rosenbaum, eds.) at 258 pages, and Capital Punishment: A Reader (Stassen, ed., 1998) at 384, to name just two recent examples. Chapters tackling important issues such as the history of the death penalty and racial discrimination in its administration are dispatched in as few as 8 pages. As a result, the book has a superficial quality. Its analysis, particularly, suffers; all too often, its illustrations and evidence take the form of the authors' personal anecdotes. Here is one example of the analysis employed. The argument in Chapter 8, "Retributive Justice," runs something like this: 1) The death penalty is based largely on the psychology of retribution (assertion #1). 2) Retribution is based on anger (assertion #2). 3) Anger is bad, dangerous, as well as condemned by Scripture. 4) Implication: Retribution and, hence, the death penalty are bad. The book never really rises above this sort of reasoning, which clearly doesn't do much work for us. To compound the problem, the book was compiled in 1989, when George Bush Sr. was still present, making it less timely than other surveys. The best that can be said about the book is that it provides a very broad overview of the major issues in the debate over the death penalty. As a whole, it appears appropriate for a high school reading and interest level. Recommended for younger readers and students only.