The Culture of Vengeance and the Fate of American Justice
Cambridge University Press, 4/24/2008
EAN 9780521713863, ISBN10: 0521713862
Paperback, 266 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
America is driven by vengeance in Terry Aladjem's provocative account – a reactive, public anger that is a threat to democratic justice itself. From the return of the death penalty to the wars on terror and in Iraq, Americans demand retribution and moral certainty; they assert the 'rights of victims' and make pronouncements against 'evil'. Yet for Aladjem this dangerously authoritarian turn has its origins in the tradition of liberal justice itself – in theories of punishment that justify inflicting pain and in the punitive practices that result. Exploring vengeance as the defining problem of our time, Aladjem returns to the theories of Locke, Hegel and Mill. He engages the ancient Greeks, Nietzsche, Paine and Foucault to challenge liberal assumptions about punishment. He interrogates American law, capital punishment and images of justice in the media. He envisions a democratic justice that is better able to contain its vengeance.
Part I. Liberalism and the Anger of Punishment
The Motivation to Vengeance and Myths of Justice Reconsidered
Part II. Violence, Vengeance and the Rudiments of American Theodicy
Part III. The Nature of Vengeance
Memory, Self-Deception and the Movement from Terror to Pity
Part IV. Revenge and the Fallibility of the State
The Problem of Vengeance and Democratic Punishment Revisited or How America Should Punish.