**not available 2007-2008**

Special Topics List (from 2004-05)

“VIOLENCE IN AMERICAN CULTURE”

(Compiled by Profs. Susan Bales, Robert Bonner, Annette Nierobisz & Ron Rodman)

1. History of Violence in American Society

Brown, Richard Maxwell. 1991. No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gurr, T.R. 1981. “Historical trends in violent crimes: a critical review of the evidence.” Crime and Justice 3: 295- 353.

2. Racial Violence: An Historical Perspective

A. Lynchings & Slavery

Fiction: Morrison, Toni. Beloved. 1987. New York: New American Library.

Allen, James, et. al, eds. 2000. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Twin Palms.

Beck, E.M. and S.E. Tolnay. 1990. “The Killing Fields of the Deep South: The Market for Cotton and the Lynching of Blacks, 1882-1930.” American Sociological Review 55: 526-539.

Mathews, Donald G. 2000. “The Southern Rite of Human Sacrifice” Journal of Southern Religion 3.

B. Violence against Indigenous Groups

Andrist, Ralph K. "Nits Make Lice." Pp. 69-96 in The Long Death; The Last Days of the Plains Indians. New York: Macmillan, 1964.

Salisbury, Neal. Introduction to Mary White Rolandson’s Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together With the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and Related Documents. Edited by Neal Salisbury. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Slotkin, Richard. 1973. Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1800. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

3. Contemporary Expressions of Violence

A. Civil Disorder
Documentary: At the River I Stand. 1993. D: Director David Appleby.

Kerner Commission. 1968. Supplemental Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

B. Gangs
Film: Boyz N the Hood. 1991. D: John Singleton.

Best, Joel. 1999. “Gangs, Conspiracies, and Other Cultural Resources.” Pp. 72-92 in Random Violence: How We Talk About New Crimes and New Victims. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Thornberry, Terence P. et al. 2003. “Characteristics of Gang Members.” Pp. 32-55 in Gangs and Delinquency in Developmental Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thornberry, Terence P. et al. 2003. “The Antecedents of Gang Memberships.” Pp. 56-76 in Gangs and Delinquency in Developmental Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thornberry, Terence P. et al. 2003. “The Origins of Gang Membership.” Pp. 77-95 in Gangs and Delinquency in Developmental Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

4. Perceptions of Violence in the Media

Film: Natural Born Killers (1994; D: Oliver Stone)

Gore, Tipper. 1987. “The Cult of Violence.” Pp. 47-80 in Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society. Nashville: Abington Press.

Binder, A. 1993. “Constructing Racial Rhetoric: Media Depictions of Harm in Heavy Metal and Rap Music.” American Sociological Review 58: 753-767

Slocum, David J. 2001. Violence and American Cinema. New York: Routledge.

Walser, Robert. 1987. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press.

5. Violence in the Private Sphere

Fiction: Carver, Raymond, “So Much Water So Close to Home.” Pp. 213-37 in Where I’m Calling From. New York: Vintage, 1988.

Film: The Burning Bed (1984; D: Robert Greenwald)

Graulich, Melody. “Violence Against Women: Power Dynamics in the Literature of the Western Family” in The Women’s West, ed. By Susan Armitage and Elizabeth Jameson.

Greven, Philip. 1977. The Protestant Temperament. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Parts 2 and 3 (4?)

Macmillan, Ross and Rosemary Gartner. 1999. “When She Brings Home the Bacon: Labor-Force Participation and the Risk of Spousal Violence against Women.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 61: 947-958.