American torture. For years, philosophers, jurists, and legal theorists struggled with American use of torture in the war on terror. Just a few days after the events of the September 11th attacks, President George Bush was authorizing the use of torture on suspected members of international terrorist organizations. After a few months, American leaders were authorizing the use of imprisonment and torture against &#8220;any individual the president has ‘reason to believe’ is a member of Al Qaeda or anyone causing or seeking to cause harm to the United States, its citizens, or its economy.” Modern American torture began with the Cold War in the early 1950s and culminated in the war on terror. This is the history of the American variant of that universal and infamous institution. This is an American torture story. 



It&#8217;s all here and it&#8217;s all free on Battlecast &#8211; the world&#8217;s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact. This podcast is a thematic sequel to the episode on the September 11th terrorist attacks which you can find <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2019/08/26/9-11-the-september-11-attacks-32/">here</a>. 



In addition, this is part seven of an ongoing series on torture. You can find part six: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2025/04/20/a-history-of-torture-in-america-100/">here</a>, part five: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2025/03/19/a-history-of-the-cambodian-genocide-99/">here</a>, part four: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2025/02/18/gulag-a-history-of-soviet-torture/">here,</a> part three: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2025/01/18/the-inquisition-a-history-97/">here</a>, part two: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2024/12/19/a-history-of-torture-roman-christian-and-south-american-96/">here</a>, and part one: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2024/11/18/a-universal-institution-the-definitive-history-of-torture-95/">here</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://archive.org/download/bc-101/BC101.mp3"></audio></figure>



Download episode 101 here: <a href="https://archive.org/download/bc-101/BC101.mp3">download link</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The Definitive History of Torture Maps and Images:</h3>



Extensive maps and images are posted to the Historical Atlas of Torture located <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2024/11/18/the-historical-atlas-of-torture/">here</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Music Source:</h3>



Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio /// website: <a href="http://karlcasey.bandcamp.com">karlcasey.bandcamp.com</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The Definitive History of Torture and the Inquisition References:</h3>



Amnesty International. (November, 1976). Amnesty International Briefing: Iran.&nbsp;



Amnesty International. (1972). Report on Allegations of Torture in Brazil. Amnesty International Publications.&nbsp;



Amnesty International. (2015). No end in sight: Torture and Forced Confessions in China.&nbsp;



The (in)effectiveness of torture for combating insurgency by Christopher Michael Sullivan. Journal of Peace Research, May 2014, Vol. 51, No. 3.



U.S.-supported state terror: A history of police training in Latin America by Martha K. Huggins. Crime and Social Justice, 1987, No. 27/28, pp. 149-171.



A history of torture by Brian Innes. Amber books. 2017.



Torture as an instrument of national policy: France 1954–1962 by Philip Agee. The Black Scholar. 21:2, 66-70.



A history of the American people by Paul Johnson.



American torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and beyond by M. Otterman. 2007.&nbsp;



Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “drawing and quartering”. Encyclopedia Britannica, March 27, 2024, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/drawing-and-quartering">https://www.britannica.com/topic/drawing-and-quartering</a>.



Americans at war: Eyewitness accounts from the American Revolution to the 21st century. Volume 2. ABC-CLIO books. 2018. Edited by James Arnold.&nbsp;



Note – this is one of the best compendiums of eyewitness accounts of American war-fighting put into print and is well worth locating for anyone interested in American military history – L.W.



Torture behind bars: Role of the police force in India by John Aston. 2020.



Judging war crimes and torture: French justice and international criminal tribunals and commissions (1940-2005) by Yves Beigbeder.&nbsp;



Legacies of authoritarianism: Brazilian torturers’ and murderers’ reformulation of memory by Martha K. Huggins. Latin American Perspectives, Mar., 2000, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 57-78.



The Spanish invasion of Mexico: 1519-1521 by Charles M. Robinson III. 2004. Osprey publishing.&nbsp;



“My medicine is punishment”: A case of torture in early California, 1775–1776&nbsp; by Claudio Saunt. Ethnohistory. 57:4 (Fall 2010).&nbsp;



A concise history of Brazil, second edition by Boris Fausto. 2014. Cambridge University Press.&nbsp;



The corruption of angels: The great inquisition of 1245-1246 by Mark Pegg. 2001. Princeton University Press.&nbsp;



Cruel Britannia: A secret history of torture by Ian Cobain. 2012.&nbsp;



The Albigensian Crusade by Jonathan Sumption. 2000.



Crusade, heresy and inquisition in the lands of the Crown of Aragon by Damian Smith. 2010. Brill.&nbsp;



Crypto-Judaism and The Spanish Inquisition by Michael Alpert.&nbsp;



The death of Aztec Tenochtitlan: The life of Mexico City by Barbara Mundy.&nbsp;



The Gulag Archipelago. Three Volumes. By Alexander Solzhenitsyn.&nbsp;



History taking after torture by Abi Rimmer. British Medical Journal, Vol. 349 (20 Oct 2014 – 26 Oct 2014).



Double‐blind: The torture case by Diana Taylor. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 33, No. 4, (Summer 2007).



Practical homicide investigation: Tactics, procedures, and forensic techniques by Vernon Geberth.&nbsp;



Practical homicide investigation checklist and field guide by Vernon Geberth.



Sex-related homicide and death investigation: Practical and clinical perspectives by Venon Geberth.&nbsp;



America in the Philippines, 1899-1902: The first torture scandal by Christopher Einolf.&nbsp;



The European witch craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A sociologist’s perspective by Nachman Ben-Yehuda. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 86, No. 1 (Jul., 1980), pp. 1-31.



Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890, five volumes by Peter Cozzens. 2001. Stackpole books.&nbsp;



Facing the torturer by Francois Bizot.



The failure of constitutional torture prohibitions by Adam S. Chilton and Mila Versteeg. The Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2 (June 2015), pp. 417-452.



God’s jury: The inquisition and the making of the modern world by Cullen Murphy.



Heaven or heresy: A history of the inquisition by Thomas Madden. 2007.



Heresy, crusade and inquisition in Southern France, 1100 – 1250 by Walter Wakefield.&nbsp;



History of flagellation by Joseph McCabe. 1946.&nbsp;



A history of Medieval heresy and inquisition by Jennifer Deane. 2011.



The history of the inquisition by Philippus van Limborch. 1816.&nbsp;



Tortures et supplices en France by Fernand Mitton. 1909.&nbsp;



Holy horrors: An illustrated history of religious murder by James Haught. 2000.



The Apache Wars: The hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the captive boy who started the longest war in American history by Paul Hutton. 2017.



Illustrated catalogue of the historical and world-renowned collection of torture instruments from the royal castle of Nuremberg. Earl of Shrewbury and Talbor. 1893.&nbsp;



Imperial inquisitions by Steven Rutledge.&nbsp;



Pol Pot: Anatomy of a nightmare by Philip Short. 2006.



The Pol Pot regime: Race, power, and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 by Ben Kiernan. 2008.



Inquisition and society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478 – 1834 by Stephen Haliczer. 1990.



The inquisition: A history by Michael Thomsett.



The inquisition: A global History 1478-1834 by Francisco Bethencourt.&nbsp;



The Spanish inquisition: A historical revision by Henry Kamen. 2014.



Modern inquisitions, Peru and the colonial origins of the civilized world by&nbsp; Irene Silverblatt.



The washing of the spears by Donald Morris.



Reporting war; How foreign correspondents risked capture, torture and death to cover World War II by Ray Mosley. 2017.



On torture, or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by Talal Asad. Social Research, Vol. 63, No. 4 (WINTER 1996), pp. 1081-1109.



On the ethics of torture by U. Steinhoff. 2013.



Torture by Peter Edwards. 1996.&nbsp;



Religious zealotry and political violence in Christianity and Islam by M.D. Litonjua. International Review of Modern Sociology, Vol. 35, No. 2, (Autumn 2009), pp. 307-331.



Regarding the pain of others by Susan Sontag.



On pain by Ernst Junger.&nbsp;



On killing by Dave Grossman.&nbsp;



The history of torture through the ages by George Scott. 2013. Routledge.&nbsp;



The Spanish inquisition by Helen Rawlings.&nbsp;



State torture: Interviewing perpetrators, discovering facilitators, theorizing cross-nationally proposing ‘Torutre 101.’ by Martha Huggins. State Crime Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 2012), pp. 45-69.



The Roman inquisition, the index and the Jews by Stephan Wendehorst.



Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391 by Paola Tartakoff.



Terrorism, ticking time-bombs, and torture: A philosophical analysis by F. Allhoff. 2012.&nbsp;



The big book of pain: Torture and punishment through history by Mark Donnelly and Daniel Diehl.&nbsp;



The Cambridge History of Latin America edited by Leslie Bethell. 2008.



The case of Pietro Acciarito: Accomplices, psychological torture, and “Raison d’État” by Nunzio Pernicone. Journal for the Study of Radicalism, Vol. 5, No. 1 (SPRING 2011), pp. 67-104.



The death penalty as torture by John Bessler.&nbsp;



The fall and rise of Torture: A comparative and historical analysis by Christopher J. Einolf. Sociological Theory, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Jun., 2007), pp. 101-121.



Note: Einolf’s article is one of the best, short introductions to the history of torture – L.W.&nbsp;



A history of torture by Daniel Mannix.&nbsp;



The long howl: Serial torture by Ross Chambers. Yale French Studies, 2010, No. 118/119, pp. 39-51.



Wolves in the city: The death of French Algeria by Paul Henissart. 1970.&nbsp;



A savage war of peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne.&nbsp;



The meaning of torture by Paul D. Kenny. Polity, Vol. 42, No. 2 (April 2010), pp. 131-155.



The New Cambridge Medieval History edited by Rosamond McKitterick. 2008.



Anonymous. Il Libro Dell’avversario. Not dated.



The Spanish inquisition 1478-1614: An anthology of sources edited by Lu Ann Homza. 2006.&nbsp;



The absolute violation: Why torture must be prohibited by Richard S. Matthews.



The ethics of interrogation by P. Lauritzen. 2013.



The ethics of torture by J. Wisnewski and R.D. Emerick. 2009.



The torture question: The role of religion and psychology in public opinion of torture by Elizabeth Quiros. 2015. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Vanderbilt University.&nbsp;



Torture 101: Lessons from the Brazilian case by Martha Huggins. Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2, (Fall, 2005), pp. 161-173.



Torture by David Hope. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Oct., 2004), pp. 807-832.



Torture and democracy by Darius Rejali.&nbsp;



Lucian M. Ashworth (2010). Torture as public policy: restoring US credibility on the world stage, Journal of Power, 3:3, 445-451.&nbsp;



History and methods of torture by Brian Innes. 2002.&nbsp;



“Torture,” by H. Vogel. Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences, second edition. 2013.&nbsp;



Torture without torturers: Violence and racialization in black Chicago by Laurence Ralph. Current Anthropology. Volume 61. February 2020.&nbsp;



Torture: A collection. Edited by S. Levinson. 2006.&nbsp;



The trial of Francis Ravaillac for the murder of King Henry the Great edited by Edmund Goldsmid. 1885.&nbsp;



Police torture in France by Niels Uildriks. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. Vol. 17/4. 1999. Pp. 411-423.



Understanding torture by J.J. Wisnewski. 2010.&nbsp;



War before civilization: The myth of the peaceful savage by Lawrence H. Keeley. 1997.



Medieval punishments: An illustrated history of torture by William Andrews. 2013.



Witch hunts in the Western world by Brian Pavlac. 2009.



Canada’s impossible acknowledgment by Stephen Marche. The New Yorker. September 7, 2017



Austin, L.J. & Bocco, R. (2016). Becoming a torturer: Towards a global ergonomics of care. International Review of the Red Cross, 98(903).&nbsp;



Ex Captivitate Salus by Carl Schmitt. 2017. Polity books.



Crimes of war: Iraq. Edited by Richard Falk, Irene Gendzier, and Robert Jay Lifton. 2006.



Crimes of war: What the public should know. Edited by Roy Gutman and David Rieff. 1999. W.W. Norton.



A question of torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror by Alfred McCoy. 2006. Henry Holt and Company.



Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation by Alfred McCoy



The Trauma of Psychological Torture edited by Almerindo Ojeda



The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse edited by Marjorie Cohn



Martyr’s Mirror by Thieleman J. van Braght



Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America by Daniel P. Barr



Reed, Betsy (December, 2014). How the CIA tortured its detainees. The Guardian. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-methods-waterboarding-sleep-deprivation#:~:text=Sleep%20deprivation%20was%20employed%20routinely,in%20front%20of%20his%20body">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-methods-waterboarding-sleep-deprivation#:~:text=Sleep%20deprivation%20was%20employed%20routinely,in%20front%20of%20his%20body</a>.&nbsp;



The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcriptions of the Court Records. Edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Da Capo Press: New York, 1977.



Applebaum, Anne. (2003). Gulag: A history. Doubleday.



Levy, George (1999). To die in Chicago.&nbsp;



O’Brien, D. Two of a Kind — The Hillside Stranglers. New York: Signet, 1985



Madame Lalaurie, Mistress of the Haunted House by Carolyn Morrow Long.



The Peculiar Institution by Kenneth Stamp.&nbsp;



Long, Carolyn Morrow. (2020). “Mistress of the Haunted House.” 64Parishes.org. <a href="https://64parishes.org/mistress-haunted-house">https://64parishes.org/mistress-haunted-house</a>&nbsp;



Mad Madame Lalaurie : New Orleans’ most famous murderess revealed by Love, Victoria Cosner



A Short History of Cambodia by John Tully



Facing Death in Cambodia by Peter Maguire



The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano



Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South by Kenneth Stamp



A short history of Cambodia by John Tully



Facing death in Cambodia by Peter Maguire



The Gate by Francois Bizot



Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Untied States by Michael Haas



Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution by George Hildebrand and Gareth Porter



Pol Pot by Philip Short



When the War was Over by Elizabeth Becker



Why did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide by Alexander Hinton



Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia by Stephen Morris



Revolution, Reform and Regionalism in Southeast Asia by Ronald Bruce St. John



The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse by Lt. General Sak Sutsakhan



Facing Death in Cambodia by Peter Maguire



Genocide in Cambodia by Howard J. De Nike, John Quigly and Kenneth Robinson&nbsp;



“Like we Were Enemies in a War:” China’s Mass Internment, Torture, and Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang by Amnesty International. 2021.



Torture in China by Amnesty International. 1992.&nbsp;



Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by&nbsp;T.J. Stiles



The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote



A History of Missouri: Volume III, 1860 to 1875 by William E. Parrish&nbsp;



Sheridan: The life and wars of General Phil Sheridan by Roy Morris Junior.&nbsp;



Inside War by Michael Fellman



Old Dominion: New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia by Ronald L. Heinemann, John Kolp, Anthony Parent Junior and Willian Shade.&nbsp;



Quantrill’s War: The life and times of William Clarke Quantrill by Duane Schultz



Futch, H. “Prison Life at Andersonville.” In Hesseltine, W.B. (Ed.). Civil war prisons.&nbsp;



Andersonville: The Last Depot by William Marvel. The University of North Caroline Press.&nbsp;



Andersonvilles of the North: The myths and realities of northern treatment of Civil War prisoner by J.M. Gillespie (2008).&nbsp;

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