Violence in America: Protest, Rebellion, Reform (Violence, Cooperation, Peace)

By: Gurr, Ted Robert

Book Overview

An excellent companion to Violence in America: The History of Crime, this volume provides fascinating insight into recently developed theories on the sources of recurring conflict in American society. With their main focus on traumatic issues that have generated group violence and continue to do so, the contributors discuss the most intractable source of social and political conflict in our history--the resistance of Black Americans to their inferior status, and the efforts of White Americans to keep them there. Other intriguing topics include the emergence and decline of political terrorism and the continuation of violent threats from right-wing extremists, such as the Klan, the Order, and the Aryan nations. The basic assumption underlying all interpretations is that group violence grows out of the dynamics of social change and political contention. The idea presented is that the origins, processes, and outcomes of group violence, like the causes and consequences of crime, must be understood and dealt with in their social contexts. This volume is essential reading for students and professionals in history, criminology, victimology, political science, and other related areas. SEE QUOTE W/ VOLUME ONE

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803932294
• ISBN13: 9780803932296
• Release Date: June 1989
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Solid Research on the History of Violence in America

The collection of case studies, in Part I of this two-part series on violence in America, adequately sets the historical scene for volume II, which deals in a historically sweeping way with protest, rebellion and reform. While much of the material in volume I now needs updating, for its time, it was seminal and groundbreaking, following as it did in the quake of the race riots in the aftermath of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. A great deal of what appears in part I are "empirical case studies" of violence in the U.S. compared with that in other countries, Europe in particular. And although I take issue with one of its main conclusions (that the differences between violence in Europe and the U.S. is more of degree than kind), the studies themselves are well researched, sharply drawn, and tightly woven, if somewhat too narrowly focused for my taste. However, each taken individually is a five star effort. Were I unfamiliar with professor Gurr's impressive and much larger corpus of work on international violence, I might be inclined to criticize the case studies as being much too narrowly focused to draw any general systemic conclusions about violence in the nation more generally. But since I am familiar with his work, I will restrict my comments to a single passing comment about "case study research in general." As others have noted before me, sufficiently restricted, case studies "tell us more and more about less and less." In fact, that is the feeling one gets when completing the two volume set. As the editor noted in the preface, "the most intractable source of social and political conflict in our nation and in its history remains the resistance of Black Americans to their inferior status and the efforts of whites to keep them there." Yet, only three chapters are devoted to the issue of race, and a great deal is devoted to a comparative analysis with other nations. One could argue that this emphasis on comparative analysis is at the very least misplaced; and that, in doing so, it misses the bigger picture, the larger panoramic Gestalt of the under-girding role that race and racism has played and continues to play in enabling American violence. In this same vein, one could also argue that the narrow focus on "empirically-based case studies," the sensitivity of not looking too deeply into all sides of the issue of racial violence, and the failure to reveal a comprehensive view of American violence, are not unrelated. For this reason, I believe these volumes would have been immeasurably enriched had some of the less empirically-based, more anecdotal pieces, done much later by David T. Courtwright (in his book "Violent Land"), been used. Sometimes, putting flesh and bones on the empirical models in case studies can "seal the deal." But this is academic nitpicking in the extreme. These are very, very valuable contributions to better understanding the role violence plays in American culture. Five stars.