Culture of Vengeance and the Fate of American Justice
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...
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America is driven by vengeance in Aladjem's timely analysis, and the fate of democratic justice hangs in the balance.
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.
