Human Violence

In Designs for the Pluriverse Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice aimed at channeling design's world-making capacity toward ways of being and doing t….

This is Citizen Jack’s book, a masterful demonstration of a personal view turned sociopolitical gold. —CHARLES R. AULT JR., Professor Emeritus, Lewis & Clark College Discover the truth about the Trump years with Citizen Jack's gripping and detailed account in The Trump Files. Renowned science educator, researcher, blogger, and author Jack Hassard vividly documents the nation's turbulent Trump years and brings readers back to those troubling days. Through sharp, clear-eyed prose, he takes on racial injustice, the Trumpist worldview, and how science was diminished in the Trump era. The ...

Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature, and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy, and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.

Maps have a mysterious hold over us. Whether ancient, crumbling parchments or generated by Google, maps tell us things we want to know, not only about our current location or where we are going but about the world in general. And yet, when it comes to geo-politics, much of what we are told is generated by analysts and other experts who have neglected to refer to a map of the place in question.

Throughout history, even as daily life has exhibited calm and tolerance, war has never been far away, and even within societies, violence can be a threat. The Goodness Paradox gives a new and powerful argument for how and why this uncanny combination of peacefulness and violence crystallized after our ancestors acquired language in Africa a quarter of a million years ago. 

In the reality TV show The Running Man, the only objective is to stay alive. This “slam-bang action suspense” (Gilbert Cruz, Vulture) from Stephen King is now a major motion picture from Paramount. Ben Richards has no job, no money, and a young daughter who urgently needs medical attention...

At just twelve years of age, Ionna has already experienced a life filled with unimaginable horrors. After years of savage beatings and severe emotional abuse, she has finally left her parents’ house behind. But life on the streets can be cruel—especially for a young, beautiful girl. With her newfound freedom, Ionna discovers that new dangers lurk around every corner. This includes the thriving human trafficking trade—a multibillion dollar industry surviving on the exploitation of children and women all over the world. Vulnerable, starving, and struggling for survival, Ionna is just ...

A harrowing exploration of the uniquely dangerous experience of men whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another—from the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm. "Incisive ... absorbing ... original." —New York Times Book Review Sebastian Junger turns his brilliant and...

René Girard Explained: Mimetic Desire, Scapegoating, Violence, Religion, and Human Culture introduces a thinker whose central claim is both simple and unsettling: people do not just desire things on their own. They learn what to want by imitating others. From that starting point, Girard built a far-reaching account of rivalry, conflict, blame, religion, and social order. This book explains his ideas in clear language for intelligent non-specialists, with concrete examples drawn from ordinary life, public controversy, and cultural history. The discussion begins with Girard’s life and ...

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.

Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world.

The indisputable classic of military history that uncovers the shortcomings of military leadership and explains why generals fail. "This penetrating, self-knowing, often hilarious, and sometimes alarming book is a must-read. It is a classic of military history awaiting rediscovery today.”...

A groundbreaking exploration of how women survive—and carry—the lasting impact of sexual trauma from award-winning New York Times Magazine writer Jen Percy “Impossibly beuatiful...Girls Play Dead is a vital continuation of [the effort] 'to tell true stories of women’s lives,' in such...

Take a fascinating deep dive into the dark world of forensic science as experts team up to solve the identity of an unknown woman, using the rapidly evolving techniques being used to break the most notorious cold cases. Fans of true crime shows like CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and Law &Order know...

Restores the region’s fraught history of repression and resistance to popular consciousness and connects the United States’ interventions and influence to the influx of refugees seeking asylum today. At the center of the current immigration debate are migrants from Central America fleeing...

In this definitive book on revenge, psychiatry researcher James Kimmel, Jr. exposes the unseen neurobiological cause of violence—a compulsive desire for retribution—and offers a profound new understanding of human behavior and breakthrough framework for making our lives and communities safer...

From a Harvard scholar and former Obama official, a powerful proposal for curtailing violent crime in America Urban violence is one of the most divisive and allegedly intractable issues of our time. But as Harvard scholar Thomas Abt shows in Bleeding Out, we actually possess all the tools...

Read by the author. This volume in Biblical Theology for Life series dives deeply into the topic of human violence. Before exploring what the Bible says about violence, Old Testament scholar Helen Paynter sets out the contours for the study ahead by addressing the various definitions of violence...

Blood for the Gods. Death for Power. Ritual for Eternity. Across continents and centuries, the altar of civilization has been stained with blood. From the scorched pyramids of the Aztecs to the dark groves of the Druids, from the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs to the icy Andean peaks of the Inca, human sacrifice was not just a myth - it was a sacred, terrifying reality. Origins and Rituals of Human Sacrifice in Ancient Civilizations is a chilling and deeply researched exploration of one of history's most disturbing yet revealing practices. This book uncovers the beliefs, rituals, and brutal ...

Told by a former high-level member of the Peoples Temple and Jonestown survivor, Seductive Poison is the "truly unforgettable" (Kirkus Review) story of how one woman was seduced by one of the most notorious cults in recent memory and how she found her way back to sanity. From Waco to Heaven's...