The Violent Underpinnings of American Life

Liam Downey is the first sociologist since W. E. B. Du Bois to put violence right at the center of American history and social order—a mammoth effort to rework modern social theory around a more accurate account of violence in American life and history. * Jonathan Simon, author of Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America * Downey has written a sobering, hard-hitting, well-researched examination of the role that violence plays in shaping, and indeed making possible, the American social order. Exploring the scourges of sexual and racial violence, Downey’s approach is rigorous, data-driven and evidence-based, relentless, and highly persuasive. At this moment when the American cultural landscape is marked by a struggle over our willingness to reckon with the legacies of historical injustices, this book could not be timelier. This is an urgent meditation on who we are and an invitation to think critically and compassionately about what kind of a society we might become. * David Naguib Pellow, author of What is Critical Environmental Justice? * Downey explores the central role that violence has played in creating and maintaining the US social order, both domestically and abroad. He highlights how the nation’s global position and wealth are intimately linked to forms of violence that create alienation, gender and racial oppression, and inequality. This violence has become embedded within everyday lives, including discourse and corporeal practices. Importantly, with great urgency and insight, Downey demonstrates how it is absolutely necessary to forge a new foundation for human society to thrive. * Brett Clark, co-author of The Robbery of Nature: Capitalism and the Ecological Rift *