These essays cover a number of timely issues including pro-life terrorism, hate crimes, Islam's stereotyped connection to violence, rape as a war crime, ethnic conflicts, and violence against those protesting for civil rights .

Violence and Politics points out a paradox of contemporary political violence: it appears to be growing in scope and complexity even in this era of unprecedented democratic and economic growth. These essays cover a number of timely issues including pro-life terrorism, hate crimes, Islam's connection (or stereotyped connection) to violence, rape as a war crime, ethnic conflicts, and violence against those protesting for civil rights for women, gays and lesbians and blacks. Contributors cross disciplines and subdisciplines to examine the counter-intuitive persistence of violence in advanced democracies and in steadily improving developing countries.

"Anyone who doubts that violence is endemic, pervasive, and central to the operations of the modern world system should read Violence and Politics. It shows us the range of the objects of violence and the multiplicity of its forms. A crucial aid to lucid thinking." -- Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University
"The violence that targeted the economic and military pulses of American power has tested once again the peaceful promises of globalization. While edited before the attack on America, the insightful essays contained in Violence and Politics illuminate critical and multifaceted dimensions of violence in a globalized world. This reader could not have been timelier for students and scholars interested in grappling with the dark side of globalization." -- Micheline Ishay, University of Denver