Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition is part history of torture in America, from the colonial period to the present, and part intellectual history about the debates surrounding torture in the same time span. The writing is lively and engaging despite its academic heft. The introduction sets out the book’s framework, explaining that the phrase “American Tradition” refers to “the debates that Americans have waged regarding torture. Like a minuet . . . the debates have unfolded in predictable fashion,” invoking American exceptionalism of rationality, constitutional protections of liberty, and other claims to civilization (2).1 On the assumption that “[t]orture cannot be disentangled from the discourse surrounding it,” Brundage argues that the historical study of torture in the US means identifying not just acts of violence “but also the explanations, justifications, and denunciation of them” and so he “traces debates over forms of vi-

中文翻译：

---

评论：文明酷刑：美国传统 W. Fitzhugh Brundage

文明化酷刑：美国传统是美国从殖民时期到现在的酷刑史的一部分，也是关于同一时期围绕酷刑的辩论的一部分知识史。尽管它的学术分量很重，但写作生动而引人入胜。引言阐述了本书的框架，解释说“美国传统”一词是指“美国人就酷刑展开的辩论。像小步舞曲。. . 辩论以可预测的方式展开”，援引美国理性例外论、宪法保护自由和其他文明主张 (2)。1 假设“[t]orture 不能与围绕它的话语分离，