Violence in Society Books - Page 3

Regarding the Pain of Others

Susan Sontag

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Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"the ethical value of an assault by images" 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

In her On Photography, which appeared 35 years ago, Susan Sontag worried that the public's continuous exposure to horrific photos of the violence of war might backfire. The purpose (or at least one of the purposes) of such photos is to rouse opposition to the cruelty of war. But the continuous publication of them can surfeit and benumb, encouraging instead public passivity.

In her Regarding the Pain of Others, Sontag rethinks this claim (even though it's now become received wisdom), suggesting that such photos in fact haunt us. True, our attraction to images of suffering can be prurient (Plato, in the Republic, was the first to catalog this human curiosity). The way in which a photo of suffering is framed, moreover, can transform it from an object of horror into one (primarily) of heroism. But notwithstanding these and other manipulations, photos of war victims remain what Sontag calls "emblems of suffering" that awaken us to the fact that the violence of warfare is very real indeed, and that we may be complicitous in it, notwithstanding the fact that, as "spectators," we are far removed from the imaged violence. Photographs shouldn't be "supposed to repair our ignorance about the history and causes of the suffering [they] pick out and frame." But they are effective "invitation[s] to pay attention" (p. 117). Viewing photographs of suffering is no substitute for hard thinking about war, murderous violence, and our moral responsibilities. But photos can spark and fuel such reflection (p. 103). For those of us who will never have firsthand experience of the horrors of war, this vicarious exposure can be a moral catalyst. That we can turn away from such photos does nothing to "impugn the ethical value of an assault by images" (p. 116).

Like all Sontag-authored extended essays, this one is so rich in ideas and insights that at times it seems (but ony, I believe, seems) to ramble. Along the way, Sontag discusses the history of war photography, the ethical dilemma of merely "looking at" atrocities rather than doing something about them, the French school of "the spectacle" founded by Guy Debord and made "respectacle" by Baudillard and Bataille. Chapter headings would be profoundly helpful here, as well as an occasional summary. But Sontag presumably wants to provoke thought in her readers, and hesitates to provide roadmaps.

Moreover, accompanying photographs would be helpful, especially since Sontag refers to a good baker's dozen to illustrate her arguments. The curious thing--and perhaps this was her point--is that any educated reader is likely to form an immediate memory image of the photo under discussion. We are, indeed, haunted by such photos.

An intriguing, genuinely thought-provoking book--and thought-provoking books are rare these days.

Editorial Review:

Twenty-five years after her classic On Photography, Susan Sontag returns to the subject of visual representations of war and violence in our culture today.

How does the spectacle of the sufferings of others (via television or newsprint) affect us? Are viewers inured--or incited--to violence by the depiction of cruelty? In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity--from Goya's The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and the Nazi death camps, to contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine, and New York City on September 11, 2001.

In Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag once again changes the way we think about the uses and meanings of images in our world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time.

Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, 3rd Edition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society, Vol. 13)

Mark Juergensmeyer

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Religion and Violence in a postmodern context 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 22 people found this review helpful.

As a comparative cultural study of religious terrorism, Mark Juergensmeyer attempts to explain how and why religion and violence are linked. Juergensmeyer analyzes recent incidents of global religious terrorism in order to illumine overarching patterns that heighten the risk of religious violence. Splitting his book into two parts, Juergensmeyer, first, highlights examples of religious terrorism within the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Buddhist traditions. The author interviews religious leaders and activists within cultures of violence present in each of these traditions. In the second part of the book, Juergensmeyer identifies those characteristics that enhance the likelihood of religion becoming violent.

Juergensmeyer believes the first common denominator in religious extremism is the act of violence itself: terrorism is a theatrical display of violence. According to the author, these acts are performance events, inasmuch that they make symbolic, not strategic, statements. They are performative acts, insofar as they attempt to create change. The location and the time of the violent act, also, have symbolic purpose. Terrorism needs an audience, somebody to terrify, in order to be effective, and with the technological advancements of the twentieth century, the audience of this theatre is virtually global.

If religious terrorism is violent theatre, the image of a cosmic war provides the script. Violent activists view their terrorist acts as part of a larger spiritual confrontation, a battle between good and evil, between God and God's enemies. With the notion of warfare, compromise is not possible and violence, naturally, is morally justified. Religious symbols also undergird religious terrorism: all religions have symbols to overcome the images of death, disorder, and disarray. Religion asserts the primacy of meaning and order in the face of chaos, in this case, a world gone awry. Juergensmeyer identifies when these symbols can become deadly and when confrontation is likely to be characterized as a cosmic war.

The processes of satanization and empowerment are a result of viewing the world as engulfed in a cosmic war. Juergensmeyer believes that terrorists believe that they are victims, and this justifies their violent actions. If they die in their cause they are martyrs - again, religious symbolism overcoming disorder - sacrificed for their community and religion. With every war, enemies must be created, and as such the process of demonizing the enemy is important. Terrorists must deny the personhood of the enemy and create stereotypes so that the enemy can be seen as individuals. Juergensmeyer explains the process of satanization, the creation of a cosmic foe, and the process of empowerment, to create the hope that history can be changed, are integral parts of the mentalities caused by the image of cosmic warfare.

Religious violence provides a sense of empowerment to religious activists and their communities. According to the author, all terrorists fear social marginalization. In general terrorism is a male occupation, and women have minor ancillary roles, if at all. This gender specificity implies that sexuality is a factor in militant movements: sexual control needs to be established in a world gone awry, seen in active subjugation of women and homosexuality. Juergensmeyer finds commonality in terrorist groups: they are "anti-institutional, religio-nationalist, racist, sexist, male-bonding, bomb-throwing young guys," (210). Their marginality is experienced through sexual despair, which leads to violent acts of empowerment. Religious terrorists recognize they are in a struggle that cannot be won, but by dismantling the state's monopoly on power, the group demonstrates their power on behalf of the powerless.

In his concluding chapter, Juergensmeyer believes that terrorists would do anything if they believed it sanctioned by God. Because of the increasing secularism and liberalism prevalent in the world, religious terrorists seek to vault their religious views, perceived as both marginalized and traditional, into the mainstream. Secular governments are by nature enemies of these terrorist organizations, and violence is an attempt to reclaim this public sphere. Juergensmeyer, extrapolating from current trends, concludes with five ways in which religious terrorism can be resolved: terrorist organizations can be literally destroyed; terrorists can be frightened into submission by the threat of violent reprisals or imprisonment; the goals of the terrorists can be accommodated; the religious aspects are separated from politics; or religion and politics can be reconciled. Juergensmeyer believes the last solution to be the most successful.

Editorial Review:

Completely revised and updated, this new edition of Terror in the Mind of God incorporates the events of September 11, 2001 into Mark Juergensmeyer's landmark study of religious terrorism. Juergensmeyer explores the 1993 World Trade Center explosion, Hamas suicide bombings, the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack, and the killing of abortion clinic doctors in the United States. His personal interviews with 1993 World Trade Center bomber Mahmud Abouhalima, Christian Right activist Mike Bray, Hamas leaders Sheik Yassin and Abdul Azis Rantisi, and Sikh political leader Simranjit Singh Mann, among others, take us into the mindset of those who perpetrate and support violence in the name of religion.

Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction

Ola W. Barnett, Cindy Miller-Perrin, Robin Perrin

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A thoroughly updated and expanded new edition of the bestseller, Family Violence Across the Lifespan, Second Edition helps students achieve a deeper understanding of the methodology, etiology, prevalence, treatment, and prevention of family violence. Research from experts in the fields of psychology, sociology, criminology, and social welfare is woven together to provide broad coverage of current viewpoints and debates within the field of domestic violence study. Practice and policy considerations provide new and welcome perspectives, and in addition, informal interviews with leading authorities in the field of violence add depth and clarity to the topics. Organized chronologically, chapters cover child physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; courtship violence and date rape; spouse abuse, battered women, and batterers; and elder abuse.

Family Violence Across the Lifespan, Second Edition offers a comprehensive and accessibly written introduction that is ideal for use in undergraduate and master's level courses in family violence, domestic violence, and abuse offered in departments of sociology, psychology, social work, counseling, and criminal justice.

Inside: Life Behind Bars in America

Michael G. Santos

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

American jails and prisons confine nearly 13.5 million people each year. Despite these disturbing numbers, little is known about life inside beyond the mythology of popular culture.
 Michael G. Santos, a federal prisoner nearing the end of his second decade of continuous confinement, documents the lives of the men warehoused in the American prison system. Inside: Life Behind Bars in America, his first book for the general public, takes us behind those bars and into the chaos of the cellblock.
Capturing the voices of his fellow prisoners with perfect pitch, Santos makes the tragic—and at times inspiring—stories of men from the toughest gang leaders to the richest Wall Street criminals come alive. From drug schemes, murders for hire, and even a prostitution ring that trades on the flesh of female prison guards, this book contains the never-before-seen details of prison life that at last illuminate the varied ways in which men experience life behind bars in America.

Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World

Malcolm Potts, Thomas Hayden

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Human beings have been battling one another since time immemorial. But why war and terrorism? Why are men almost always the killers, and why are war and sex so inextricably linked? Why do we kill members of our own species intentionally, when few other animals do so?

Sex and War traces the cultural and biological evolution of warfare from its prehuman origins through to our own times. In the spirit of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Potts and Hayden pull together insights from history, archaeology, psychology and biology to produce a clarifying new understanding of human history and current events.

Combining exhaustive research and rich personal experience, Sex and War shows that war, terrorism, slavery, and the subjugation of women have common roots deep in our biological history. Evolution is not destiny, however, and the authors, with the crucial contributions of Martha Campbell, show how relatively simple strategies can help the biology of peace win out over the biology of war. In doing so, they lay out a rational roadmap to make war less likely in the future, and less brutal when it does occur.

Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerence

Ian Buruma

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Exceeds expectations 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I had traveled to Amsterdam twice before picking up Buruma's book with only a faint understanding of who Theo Van Gogh was or why he was murdered, but this book weaves European history, demographics and an understanding of radical Islam into a cogent explanation of why the Dutch filmmaker was murdered. I was impressed by Buruma's explanation of the motives of T. Van Gogh's assassin, the Moroccan émigré Mohammed Bouyeri, primarily because pernicious rationalizations of poverty, isolation and disillusionment were avoided in favor of focusing on Bouyeri's Muslim faith. Radical Islam, and to a large extent the entire body of `moderate' Islam, is incapable of taking rational criticism even when protestations of, say, the treatment of women are made in good faith. This is no where more clearly exemplified than the hysteria that followed the Danish Mohammed cartoons, which stills lingers as of March 2008, and the anticipatory ire which the Dutch MP Geert Wilders has aroused in the Middle East, namely Iran, upon announcing the release of a film that will be critical of Islam. Take note that Wilder's film has yet to be released, as of early March 2008, although he has already received death threats, and is under 24/7 guard, as the murder of Theo Van Gogh proved was utterly necessary.

T. Van Gogh was an implacable iconoclast whose work with the Somali émigré Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the short film `Submission' highlighted the abominable treatment and objectification of women in Islam. In `Submission', a nude female actor is covered in misogynist verses from the Koran. In the liberal democracies of the west, this is freedom of speech, but to Islam, an egregious sin.

Europe is undergoing radical demographic changes today with ever increasing immigration from Muslim nations. I'd recommend Mark Steyn's `America Alone' to place Buruma's book with a larger context.

Editorial Review:

A revelatory look at what happens when political Islam collides with the secular West

Ian Buruma ’s Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that “insulted the prophet Mohammed.” The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.

The Eight Essential Steps to Conflict Resolution

Dudley Weeks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

When you're ready for peace 4 out of 5 stars.
28 of 37 people found this review helpful.

When you're waaay past "Looking out for #1" or "Winning Through Intimidation," when you're more than a few miles down the road from "Getting to Yes," when strengthening and developing all of your relationships has become far more important to you than "winning" or getting your way or creatively persuading the other person to do your bidding....then perhaps you're ready for this book. That's right, when you're ready for peace, even if you're the one who'se going to have to change, here's a framework, a process. But not until you're ready.

Essential Life Skills Reference Book 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 23 people found this review helpful.

This book teaches the reader a process towards better conflict management. It is not a hard process to learn; its not an easy process to use all the time, though. That being said, I recommend this book HIGHLY, especially to anyone who is looking for ways to make their home life, work life, or community life more enriching.

Dudley was a professor of mine in undergraduate. He's a great man, and this is a *great* book.

Editorial Review:

Problems that "just won't go away" can be settled through methods developed by one of America's leading experts in conflict resolution. In clear language, Weeks shows readers how to turn conflict into lasting partnerships and ensure a fruitful outcome.

The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict

Christopher W. Moore

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Detailed and theoretical 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

As a beginning mediator, I found this book very detailed and theoretical. I am sure that I will return to it again and again as I gain experience. I found "Basic Skills for the New Mediator (2d edition)" by Allan H. Goodman to provide a quicker and more practical overview. When used together, I believe both books are a good basis for the practicing mediator.

Great. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book was great and exactly how it was described in the review. I received it at a fast pace.
Thanks.

A lot of Mediation Theory 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I found this book to be very instructional but dull in the reading. Also, a lot of repetition is involved, chapter by chapter. The mediator separates the chapter by topic but revisits the same cases. It would have been more logical to dedicate a certain case to a certain chapter even though that particular case involves different facets of mediation theory. I would grab the most important issue to a certain case and dedicate it only to one topic/chapter. This will be a lot more instructional and easier in the reading. Also, I found there to be some grammatical errors.

Editorial Review:

Since it was first published in 1986, The Mediation Process has become a landmark resource for mediation practitioners, trainers, students, and professionals in corporate, legal, health care, education, and governmental arenas. This thoroughly revised and expanded third edition has been updated to include coverage of the most contemporary issues in mediation practice and to provide updated bibliographical resources.

Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill

Jessica Stern

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Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For four years, Jessica Stern interviewed extremist members of three religions around the world: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Traveling extensively—to refugee camps in Lebanon, to religious schools in Pakistan, to prisons in Amman, Asqelon, and Pensacola—she discovered that the Islamic jihadi in the mountains of Pakistan and the Christian fundamentalist bomber in Oklahoma have much in common.

Based on her vast research, Stern lucidly explains how terrorist organizations are formed by opportunistic leaders who—using religion as both motivation and justification—recruit the disenfranchised. She depicts how moral fervor is transformed into sophisticated organizations that strive for money, power, and attention.

Jessica Stern's extensive interaction with the faces behind the terror provide unprecedented insight into acts of inexplicable horror, and enable her to suggest how terrorism can most effectively be countered.

A crucial book on terrorism, Terror in the Name of God is a brilliant and thought-provoking work.

Murder by Family: The Incredible True Story of a Son's Treachery and a Father's Forgiveness

Kent Whitaker

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the tragic story of Kent Whitaker's heart-wrenching journey toward forgiveness and faith after the brutal murder of his wife and one of his sons.

Straight from the headlines comes an incredible true story of a son's treachery. For the first time, readers are offered inside access to the emotional drama that went on behind the scenes. At the core is the remarkable healing power of forgiveness, demonstrated by Kent Whitaker, which shows how the survivors of such atrocious events can still forgive those who have permanently damaged their lives.

One evening, the Whitaker family returned home after dinner, celebrating a son's impending graduation from college. On opening the front door, they faced a gunman lying in wait. The gunman opened fire, instantly killing the younger sonand Kent's wife, leaving Kent and his older son lying wounded until police and ambulances arrived. While recovering in the hospital, Kent resolved in his heart to forgive whoever was responsible for the deaths of his wife and son.

Over the next few weeks, it was discovered that the whole murder plot had been orchestrated by the surviving son -- whom Kent had unknowingly forgiven. After a trial that resulted in a death sentence for his son, Kent emerged from this harrowing ordeal to share their astonishing journey toward forgiveness and redemption.