Comprehending Columbine

Comprehending Columbine

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  • Author: Ralph W. Larkin
  • Publisher: Temple University Press
  • ISBN: 9781592134922
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 268

The definitive book on the school massacre that shocked a nation.


Understanding Lone Actor Terrorism

Understanding Lone Actor Terrorism

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  • Author: Michael Fredholm
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1317328612
  • Category : Political Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 312

This volume examines the lone actor terrorist phenomenon, including the larger societal trends which may or may not have led to their acts of terrorism. With lone actor terrorism becoming an increasingly common threat, the contributors to this volume aim to answer the following questions: What drives the actions of individuals who become lone actor terrorists? Are ideological and cultural issues key factors, or are personal psychological motives more useful in assessing the threat? Do lone actors evolve in a broader social context or are they primarily fixated loners? What response strategies are available to security services and law enforcement? What is the future outlook for this particular terrorist threat? Although these issues are frequently discussed, few books have taken a global perspective as their primary focus. While many books focus on lone actor terrorists in relation to terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaida and the Islamic State, few, if any, cover lone actors of all ideological backgrounds, including the variants of active shooters and malicious insiders in information security, such as Edward Snowden – with both of these latter categories constituting an important variant of lone actors. Utilising the expertise of academics and practitioners, the volume offers a valuable multidisciplinary perspective. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and counter-terrorism, political violence, criminology, security studies and IR.


The Tree of Good and Evil

The Tree of Good and Evil

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  • Author: Charles K. Bellinger
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1666759031
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 159

There is a common way of thinking that distinguishes between the regular law-abiding citizens and the “criminals.” The many high-profile killings committed by police officers in recent years, with the George Floyd case being the most famous, have served to render this simplistic way of thinking highly problematic. It is more realistic, in terms of cultural understanding, to see violence as a dialectic; it can come from the direction of “law and order” or from the direction of the violation of law. Employing the thought of René Girard, Søren Kierkegaard, and others, this book provides a framework for understanding this dialectic. Drawing on examples from slavery, lynching, the killing of unarmed Black persons by police, and the death penalty, the theme of violence coming from the direction of “law and order” is vividly illustrated, with Girard’s thought being employed to formulate a deeply rooted theoretical understanding. There is also extensive attention paid to many examples of mass shootings and terrorist attacks—violence that is intentionally immoral and illegal. A psychological taxonomy is employed that comprehends such violence under the headings of the psychopathic, the psychotic, the traumatized, and the ideological actor.


Holy Denver

Holy Denver

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  • Author: Florence Wetzel
  • Publisher: iUniverse
  • ISBN: 1491757043
  • Category : Fiction
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 284

“It’s pure pleasure to enter the mind and heart of Holy Denver’s soulful, sympathetic protagonist, Elizabeth Zwelland. Throughout this unique story—in which the author skillfully blends the economic downturn, Beat poetics, and the Columbine High School shooting—I wanted to hug Elizabeth, have coffee with her, and cheer her on.” Kasey Jueds, author of Keeper and winner of the 2012 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize It’s 2009, the height of the economic crash, and thirty-six-year-old Elizabeth Zwelland has come down in the world. Due to fallout from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, she loses her prestigious Manhattan publishing job and is forced to move to Colorado, the home of her Beat-poet father. The only job Elizabeth can find is at an independent bookstore in downtown Denver, where she earns minimum wage and shelves the books she once edited. Embittered by her many losses, Elizabeth becomes increasingly scornful of her coworkers and the bookstore’s customers. Her behavior leads to a shocking confrontation, which forces her on a deep emotional journey that includes entering the Columbine tragedy and the JonBenét Ramsey murder. Elizabeth’s awakening occurs not by following a particular religion, but by living through painful events and opening up to life in Denver—or Holy Denver, as Jack Kerouac christened the city in On the Road.


After Gun Violence

After Gun Violence

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  • Author: Craig Rood
  • Publisher: Penn State Press
  • ISBN: 0271085479
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 201

Mass shootings have become the “new normal” in American life. The same can be said for the public debate that follows a shooting: blame is cast, political postures are assumed, but no meaningful policy changes are enacted. In After Gun Violence, Craig Rood argues that this cycle is the result of a communication problem. Without advocating for specific policies, Rood examines how Americans talk about gun violence and suggests how we might discuss the issues more productively and move beyond our current, tragic impasse. Exploring the ways advocacy groups, community leaders, politicians, and everyday citizens talk about gun violence, Rood reveals how the gun debate is about far more than just guns. He details the role of public memory in shaping the discourse, showing how memories of the victims of gun violence, the Second Amendment, and race relations influence how gun policy is discussed. In doing so, Rood argues that forgetting and misremembering this history leads interest groups and public officials to entrenched positions and political failure and drives the public further apart. Timely and innovative, After Gun Violence advances our understanding of public discourse in an age of gridlock by illustrating how public deliberation and public memory shape and misshape one another. It is a search to understand why public discourse fails and how we can do better.


American Mass Murderers

American Mass Murderers

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  • Author: Valrie Plaza
  • Publisher: Lulu.com
  • ISBN: 1312961406
  • Category : Reference
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 694

American Mass Murderers collects nearly 700 pages of information about the most notorious killers in America, as well as some of the lesser-known murderers.


Memorials to Shattered Myths

Memorials to Shattered Myths

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  • Author: Harriet Senie
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 0190248408
  • Category : Architecture
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 273

Although radically different, the Vietnam War, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School shootings, and the attacks of 9/11 all shattered myths of national identity. Vietnam was a war the United States didn't win; Oklahoma City revealed domestic terrorism in the heartland; Columbine debunked legends of high school as an idyllic time; and 9/11 demonstrated U.S. vulnerability to international terrorism.


Crimes and Trials of the Century [2 volumes] [2 volumes]

Crimes and Trials of the Century [2 volumes] [2 volumes]

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  • Author: Frankie Y. Bailey
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
  • ISBN: 1573569739
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 745

What do O. J. Simpson, the Lindbergh baby, and Gary Gilmore have in common? They were all the focus of famous crimes and/or trials in the United States. In this two-volume set, historical and contemporary cases that not only shocked the nation but that also became a part of the popular and legal culture of the United States are discussed in vivid, and sometimes shocking, detail. Each chapter focuses on a different crime or trial and explores the ways in which each became famous in its own time. The fascinating cast of characters, the outrageous crimes, the involvement of the media, the actions of the police, and the trials that often surprised combine to offer here one of the most comprehensive sets of books available on the subject of famous U.S. crimes and trials. The public seems fascinated by crime. News and popular media sources provide a steady diet of stories, footage, and photographs about the misfortunes of others in order to satisfy this appetite. Murder, rape, terrorism, gang-related activities, and other violent crimes are staples. Various crime events are presented in the news every day, but most of what is covered is quickly forgotten. In contrast, some crimes left a lasting impression on the American psyche. Some examples include the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, and the September 11th attacks. These events, and other significant cases, are immediately or on reflection talked about as crimes of the century. They earn this title not only because they generate enormous publicity, but because of their impact on American culture: they help define historical eras, influence public opinion about crime, change legal process, and focus concern about important social issues. They seep into many other shared aspects of social life: public conversation, fiction and nonfiction, songs, poems, films, and folk tales. This set focuses on the many crimes of the century of the last 100 years. In vivid detail, each crime is laid out, the investigation is discussed, the media reaction is described, the trial (if there was one) is narrated, the resolution is explored, and the significance of the case in terms of its social, political, popular, and legal relevance is examined. Illustrations and sidebars are scattered throughout to enliven the text; print and electronic resources for further reading and research are offered for those wishing to dig deeper. Cases include the Scopes Monkey trial, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, O.J. Simpson, Leopold and Loeb, Fatty Arbuckle, Al Capone, JonBenet Ramsey, the Lacy Peterson murder, Abu Ghraib, Columbine and more.


Rampage Violence Narratives

Rampage Violence Narratives

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  • Author: Kathryn E. Linder
  • Publisher: Lexington Books
  • ISBN: 0739187511
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 169

Springfield. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Each school shooting in the United States is followed by a series of questions. Why does this happen? Who are the shooters? How can this be prevented? Along with parents, school officials, media outlets, and scholars, popular culture has also attempted to respond to these questions through a variety of fictional portrayals of rampage violence. Rampage Violence Narratives: What Fictional Accounts of Rampage Violence Say about the Future of America’s Youth offers a detailed look at the state of youth identity in American cultural representations of youth violence through an extended analysis of over forty primary sources of fictional narratives of urban and suburban/rural school violence. Representations of suburban and rural school shootings that are modeled after real-life events serve to shape popular understandings of the relationship between education and American identity, the liminal space between childhood and adulthood, and the centrality of white heterosexual masculinity to definitions of social and political success in the United States. Through a series of "case studies" that offer in-depth examinations of fictional depictions of school shootings in film and literature, it becomes clear that these stories are representative of a larger social narrative regarding the future of the United States. The continuing struggle to understand youth violence is part of an ongoing conversation about what it means to raise future citizens within a cultural moment that views youth through a lens of anxiety rather than optimism.


A Mother's Reckoning

A Mother's Reckoning

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  • Author: Sue Klebold
  • Publisher: Crown
  • ISBN: 1101902760
  • Category : Biography & Autobiography
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 338

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters, about living in the aftermath of Columbine. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives. For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently? These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother’s Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts. Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother’s Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent. All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues. — Washington Post, Best Memoirs of 2016