Offering an eclectic roster of voices on the subject, this useful reader also raises the suspicion that the history of violence is a red herring. The pervasiveness of violence makes it difficult to distinguish violence from change, or history itself. Violent change requires some kind of ethical marker to make narrative sense as history. Violence is never morally or politically ... Read moreneutral: context is everything.
Priya Satia
Times Literary Supplement
Even though its tone is unremittingly gloomy, reading through On Violence reveals an impressive selection of thinkers about this vexed subject. The brilliance of this collection lies in the editors' courage to include unpalatable writings alongside noble ones.
Tim Roberts
M/C Reviews
[T]his anthology is a triumph of editorial serendipity.
Steven Poole
The Guardian
This volume provides a long-needed anthology of major writings related to the subject of violence. The readings include excerpts from classic contributions of Marx and Freud along with pieces by modern thinkers such as Girard and Bourdieu and social activists from Gandhi to bin Laden. The selections are skillfully chosen to address a central theme, that violence always takes place in a context. The readings explore the idea that social, internal, ritualized, and other forms of violence are part of the processes of life and not necessarily anomalies. This is a thoughtful and arresting set of essays on an important topic that will be useful in the classroom and much discussed in the public forum. -Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence Show Less