Chris Burford writes: >Torture was especially used in Europe from the middle ages at the time of the rising bourgeois state. It is interesting that it is becoming a credible need at a time of turbulence in the creation of the international Empire.<
I'm not sure that this historical analogy works. I'd be that torture was pretty "normal" before the rise of the bourgeois state; feudal lords were not expecially admirable in terms of their allegiance to human rights. If that's true, what's important is the _decline_ of torture. I'd say that in Englad, it was the rise of the urban working class as an organized force. In the USA, it reflects the power of the small farmers -- whose influence was reflected in our Bill of Rights -- and later the urban working class. Of course, if someone knows the history better than I do, I bow to their expertise. In the US, as suggested by the "torture chic" article which I sent to pen-l awhile back, the rise of suggestions that torture is "okay" come from (1) the wave of jingoism; (2) the frustration of many with the lack of information received from terrorist-related suspects; and (3) the lack of political power of the targets. I suspect that the story is similar in the UK.
