National Book Award and Pulitzer-winning author Rhodes (The Making
of the Atomic Bomb, 1987, etc.) offers a passionate assessment of
the career of Dr. Lonnie Athens, a cutting-edge criminologist whose
overlooked work deciphers the process by which individuals commit
themselves to violent action. Unlike most criminologists, Athens
grew up intimately acquainted with interpersonal mayhem, both
within his family and in the high-crime environment of Richmond,
Va. As a Berkeley graduate student, he embarked on the then-radical
tactic of interviewing prisoners about their violent crimes and
eventually formulated a provocative yet persuasive theory that such
actors undergo a four-stage "violentization" process, in which
their own childhood brutalization and"horrification" (witnessing
violence against others) is augmented by"violence coaching," until
the individual instinctually accepts violence as a ready solution
to personal conflict. Although Athens published two books on his
findings, his academic career foundered for many years. Rhodes thus
applies his considerable narrative authority both toward detailed
explication of Athens's work and as advocacy. He accomplishes these
goals in many ways, ranging from his poignant re-creation of
Athens's blasted childhood, to his application of Athens's template
to notorious criminals like Lee Harvey Oswald (and Mike Tyson!),
and more generally to such phenomena as wartime atrocities and the
extreme violence of the medieval era. By utilizing Athens's work as
a foundation, Rhodes produces a disturbing and engrossing study of
the (seemingly) myriad motivators of contemporary violence;
however, his inclusion of sundry third-person scholarship and of
such unexpected tangents as the life of Louis XIII tend to dilute
the clarity and immediacy which mainstream discussion of social
crises inherently demands. That said, Athens's tumultuous life is
illuminated and his work comes alive in the context of Rhodes's
fine prose and elegant organization. Athens's thesis is both subtle
and discomforting (in that he finds the completed "violentization"
process to be irreversible); one concurs with the necessity of
Rhodes's commitment to introduce it into the often dissonant arenas
of contemporary criminology and social theory. (Kirkus Reviews)
Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, brings his inimitable vision, exhaustive research, and mesmerizing prose to this timely book that dissects violence and offers new solutions to the age old problem of why people kill.
Lonnie Athens was raised by a brutally domineering father. Defying all odds, Athens became a groundbreaking criminologist who turned his scholar's eye to the problem of why people become violent. After a decade of interviewing several hundred violent convicts--men and women of varied background and ethnicity, he discovered "violentization," the four-stage process by which almost any human being can evolve into someone who will assault, rape, or murder another human being. Why They Kill is a riveting biography of Athens and a judicious critique of his seminal work, as well as an unflinching investigation into the history of violence.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(2)
