Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology (Blackwell Readers in Anthropology) [Paperback]

Nancy Scheper-Hughes (Author), Philippe I. Bourgois (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0631223495 | ISBN-13: 978-0631223498 | Edition: 1st

From Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” to Joseph Conrad’s “fascination of the abomination,” humankind has struggled to make sense of human-upon-human violence. Edited by two of anthropology’s most passionate voices on this subject, Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology is the only book of its kind available: a single volume exploration of social, literary, and philosophical theories of violence.

• Brings together a sweeping collection of readings, drawn from a remarkable range of sources, that look at various conceptions and modes of violence.
  
• Juxtaposes the routine violence of everyday life against the sudden outcropping of extraordinary violence such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the state violence of Argentina’s Dirty War, and organized criminal violence.
  
• Edited by two of the most prominent researchers in the field.
  
• Offers a thought-provoking tool for students and thinkers from all walks of life: an exploration of violence at the broadest levels: personal, social, and political.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This comprehensive anthology is a must read. Recognizing and understanding the continuum of violence is a critical step in meaningfully addressing the fact that violence is not specific, for example, to war, but intimately woven throughout the fabric of society.”

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997)

“This remarkable work explores the sources and surfaces of violence -- public, private, political, symbolic, psychic. Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois transform our most fundamental understanding of what it means to be a victim, an agent, or a witness. In these times of war and violence, this book has a resonance that echoes from the classroom to the state house and the street.” Homi K. Bhabha, Rothenberg Professor of Literature, Harvard University

“Violence in War and Peace brings together among the most profound empirical and philosophical texts on modern violence. Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois have created a volume that challenges fundamental issues concerning the crisis of humanity that violence exposes. This critical and politically responsible book should be read by students and researchers alike.”Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen and James Cook University

"It showcases the great relevance of ethnographic research and writing—compared to other approaches—for thinking about violence and suffering. This collection will be an invaluable resource for teachers and learners, a comprehensive anthology for introductory classes, or a companion volume for more in-depth seminars ... the reader will find some of the best attempts of the best of the last century to translate pain, uncertainty, and absurdity of violence into an at least somewhat understandable format."

Anthropological Quarterly

Book Description

This book looks at various conceptions & modes of violence: physical, psychological, structural, political, & "gratuitous" violence. It takes these conceptions & links them to daily societal issues.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing; 1st edition (November 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631223495
• ISBN-13: 978-0631223498
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart of Darkness, December 16, 2008

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology (Blackwell Readers in Anthropology) (Paperback)

I scare easily so I didn't really want to get into this book, but for professional reasons I wanted quickly to access and understand a diverse lot of anthropological theory about violence as a phenomenon, and wound up with this book on my shelf and then, I took it everywhere I went for about a month. A heavy book physically, VIOLENCE IN WAR AND PEACE benefits from Blackwell Publishing's wide page strategy and the extreme thinness of each page allows the two co-editors to pack an unbelievable number of beautifully chosen articles into one volume.

We learn about violence in war, and just about every war-front over the last 100 years. Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois concentrate not only on individual suffering but they are absolutely fixated on the disappearance (or "die off") or whole peoples and tribes, and this material is especially searing. We see violence working in the service of colonialism, and also as a tool of resistance movements here and around the world. I like the excerpting from the classic ISHI IN TWO WORLDS, together with Scheper-Hughes' own more dispassionate account of what the devil old Kroeber was doing with Ishi's body both before and after his death. Everywhere there is a welcome contextualization. The articles about the "dirty protests" of the IRA prisoners in Northern Ireland put the problem of violence in a new light, asking us to consider what happens when we try to disrupt the system from within at the risk of damaging our own psyches.

Maybe the excerpts from Pierre Bourdieu on so-called "symbolic violence" failed really to convince, but they drove us to acquire the entire volume where they make much more ssnse -- once again, a question of context. All in all a grim and devastating subject receives its own peculiar grace under the light of clear thinking.

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great, October 19, 2008

By 

Ifunanya Enezuagu "booker" (new york, ny (harlem baby)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology (Blackwell Readers in Anthropology) (Paperback)

A few highlights and marks but i don't mind it at all, the book was in great condition. The inside and outside. I am very happy with it