"Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947" is a book of firsts, a first book for historian Michael Pfeifer and, according to the author, the first national analysis of lynching and criminal justice. Pfeifer, a professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, argues that lynching was not eradicated, but instead institutionalized. As states banned lynching, they replaced it with a revitalized death penalty. In Washington state, hanging is still an option.