Lethal Imagination: Violence and Brutality in American History

Lethal ImaginationViolence and Brutality in American History\nAuthor(s): Michael A. Bellesiles\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: New York University Press, United States\nImprint: New York University Press\nISBN-13: 9780814712962, 978-0814712962\nSynopsis\nBy any standard, the United States is the most violent nation in the industrialized world. To find comparable levels of interpersonal violence, one must look to nations in the midst of civil war.\nMost observers of modern American violence do not consider the historical roots of current levels of violence, preferring to criticize American liberalism, permissive child-rearing practices, and excessive greed and individualism as the sources of the problem.\nThis collection of original essays examines the role of violence in America's past, exploring its history and development, from slave patrols in the Colonial South to gun ownership in the twentieth century.\nContributors examine both individual acts, such as domestic violence, murder,.