Download or read book The Dreadful Word written by Kristin A. Olbertson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dreadful Word describes how the criminalization, prosecution, and punishment of speech offenses in eighteenth-century Massachusetts helped to establish and legitimate a cultural regime of politeness. This work is the first of its kind and will be of interest to history and law scholars.