| Description |
xx, 246 p. ; 24 cm. |
| Note |
"Terry Aladjem's arresting insight that revenge threatens democracy in its resistance to reason and doubt becomes a clarion call as he examines how revenge is awash in America. Reactions to 9/11, debates over the death penalty, soaring rates of incarceration, pop cultural preoccupation with violence, law, O.J Simpson, the victim-focus of TV and radio talk and reality shows, and cowboy foreign policy are some of the vivid examples that this perceptive book traces to waves of enraged grief. Assessing the neglect of this moral desperation within the language and institutions informing American law and justice, The Culture of Vengeance and the Fate of American Justice revisits classical and modern scholarship to etch a course where truth-seeking and moments of mercy can reconnect justice-seeking with democratic respect."--Martha Minow. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-240) and index. |
| Contents |
Liberalism and the anger of punishment : the motivation to vengeance and myths of justice reconsidered -- Violence, vengeance, and the rudiments of American theodicy -- The nature of vengeance : memory, self-deception, and the movement from terror to pity -- Revenge & the fallibility of the state : the problem of vengeance and democratic punishment revisited or how America should punish. |
| Subject |
Political culture -- United States.
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Justice.
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Rule of law -- United States.
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Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States.
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Punishment -- United States.
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Revenge -- United States.
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| ISBN |
0521713862 (pbk.) |
|
9780521886246 (hardback) |
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0521886244 (hardback) |
|
9780521713863 (pbk.) |
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