The Roots of Danger

The Roots of Danger PDF

Author: Elliott Currie

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780190215231

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The most striking feature of violent crime around the world is its variability. Some societies are relatively safe and peaceful: in others, violent crime is a pervasive and devastating fact of life. In The Roots of Danger: Violent Crime in Global Perspective, Elliott Currie explores why some societies around the world are more violent than others. Beginning by defining violent crimes and discussing how they are measured, he then presents a variety of theories on the phenomenon of violent crime, first examining those theories that don't work and then looking at those that do. Currie concludes with a look toward the future of violence in the light of social, economic, and political changes that are transforming global society. Throughout the text, he draws examples from around the world, demonstrating similarities in the roots of violence across countries and across cultures. About the Series Keynotes in Criminology and Criminal Justice, edited by Henry N. Pontell, provides essential knowledge on important contemporary matters of crime, law, and justice to a broad audience of readers. Volumes are written by leading scholars in that area. Concise, accessible, and affordable, these texts are designed to serve either as primers around which courses can be built or as supplemental books for a variety of courses.

The Roots of Nazi Psychology

The Roots of Nazi Psychology PDF

Author: Jay Y. Gonen

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2013-07-24

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0813143683

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

" Was Hitler a moral aberration or a man of his people? This topic has been hotly argued in recent years, and now Jay Gonen brings new answers to the debate using a psychohistorical perspective, contending that Hitler reflected the psyche of many Germans of his time. Like any charismatic leader, Hitler was an expert scanner of the Zeitgeist. He possessed an uncanny ability to read the masses correctly and guide them with ""new"" ideas that were merely reflections of what the people already believed. Gonen argues that Hitler's notions grew from the general fabric of German culture in the years following World War I. Basing his work in the role of ideologies in group psychology, Gonen exposes the psychological underpinnings of Nazi Germany's desire to expand its living space and exterminate Jews. Hitler responded to the nation's group fantasy of renewing a Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. He presented the utopian ideal of one large state, where the nation represented one extended family. In reality, however, he desired the triumph of automatism and totalitarian practices that would preempt family autonomy and private action. Such a regimented state would become a war machine, designed to breed infantile soldiers brainwashed for sacrifice. To achieve that aim, he unleashed barbaric forces whose utopian features were the very aspects of the state that made it most cruel.

Circular

Circular PDF

Author: Purdue University. Agricultural Experiment Station

Publisher:

Published: 1921

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Nonviolence

Nonviolence PDF

Author: Mark Kurlansky

Publisher: Modern Library

Published: 2008-04-08

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0812974476

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than a mere state of mind. Nonviolence can and should be a technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars, he asserts, which is why it is the preferred method of those who speak truth to power. Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kurlansky also brings into focus just why nonviolence is a “dangerous” idea, and asks such provocative questions as: Is there such a thing as a “just war”? Could nonviolence have worked against even the most evil regimes in history? Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today. He shows how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners–Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example; that the stated deterrence value of standing national armies and huge weapons arsenals is, at best, negligible; and, encouragingly, that much of the hard work necessary to begin a movement to end war is already complete. It simply needs to be embraced and accelerated. Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come.

The Roots of Evil

The Roots of Evil PDF

Author: John Kekes

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2014-02-15

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0801471303

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Evil is the most serious of our moral problems. All over the world cruelty, greed, prejudice, and fanaticism ruin the lives of countless victims. Outrage provokes outrage. Millions nurture seething hatred of real or imagined enemies, revealing savage and destructive tendencies in human nature. Understanding this challenges our optimistic illusions about the effectiveness of reason and morality in bettering human lives. But abandoning these illusions is vitally important because they are obstacles to countering the threat of evil. The aim of this book is to explain why people act in these ways and what can be done about it."—John Kekes The first part of this book is a detailed discussion of six horrible cases of evil: the Albigensian Crusade of about 1210; Robespierre's Terror of 1793–94; Franz Stangl, who commanded a Nazi death camp in 1943–44; the 1969 murders committed by Charles Manson and his "family"; the "dirty war" conducted by the Argentinean military dictatorship of the late 1970s; and the activities of a psychopath named John Allen, who recorded reminiscences in 1975. John Kekes includes these examples not out of sensationalism, but rather to underline the need to hold vividly in our minds just what evil is. The second part shows why, in Kekes's view, explanations of evil inspired by Christianity and the Enlightenment fail to account for these cases and then provides an original explanation of evil in general and of these instances of it in particular.

The Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil

The Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil PDF

Author: Ervin Staub

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-03-03

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 0199700419

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In The Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil, Ervin Staub draws on his extensive experience in scholarship and intervention in real-world settings to illuminate the socializing experiences, education, and training that lead children and adults to become caring people and active bystanders who help others, and act to prevent violence and create caring societies. The book offers an excellent balance of Staub's important and influential recent articles and essays in the field and newly written chapters. It explores why we should help and not harm others. It offers wide-ranging examples and research about the roots of everyday helping and heroism, rescue in the Holocaust and elsewhere, overcoming trauma to become altruists, reconciliation in Rwanda and other ways of resisting evil, and more. Staub engages with ways to promote active bystandership in the service of preventing violence, helping people to heal from violence, and building caring societies. He explores the range of experiences that lead to active bystandership, including socialization by parents, teachers (and peers) in childhood, education, experiential learning, and public education through media. He examines what personal characteristics or dispositions result from such experiences, which in turn lead to caring and helping. Staub also considers how circumstances influence people--both individuals and whole groups--and how they join with personal dispositions to determine whether people remain passive in the face of others' need or instead help others and behave in morally courageous or even heroic ways. He considers how moral and caring values can be subverted by circumstances, and outlines ways to resist that possiblity. He also considers how past victimization and the resulting psychological woundedness, which can lead to "defensive violence" or hostility toward people and the world, may be transformed by other experiences, leading to "altruism born of suffering." The book draws on research and theory as well as work in applied settings. Ultimately this book will help readers explore how we can turn ourselves into active, helpful people and what we need to do to create peaceful and caring societies.