Description
Book SynopsisExamines interpersonal violence in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia beginning with Native American cultures before colonization and continuing into the mid-twentieth century. This title concludes that we cannot comprehend the causes and moral consequences of a violent act without considering larger social relations of power.
Trade Review"The author examines violence in terms of one individual's seeking to assert superiority over another—a power struggle that reflects deep-seated cultural attitudes. This work concentrates on the Pacific Northwest and ranges from Native American cultures and the first European encounters to the early 20th century—considering violence between spouses, family members, and angered friends and across ethnic or class lines. . . . Overall, this is a fascinating examination of a heretofore largely overlooked topic."
* Library Journal *
"David Peterson del Mar's work on violence against wives is well known to social and legal historians, and in this important, innovative, and provocative new book, he has broadened his approach to examine interpersonal violence more generally."
* BC Studies *
"A critically important book..This volume highlights a topic that many scholars of the West insist is central to understanding the evolution of frontier communities, the interactions of clashing cultures, and the impact of region on the larger context of American life..It is to be hoped that David Peterson Del Mar's provocative ideas will inspire more historians to examine other national arenas and geographic places for the evidence that private violence shaped social, economic, and political control in a country that should have relied on equality and justice, as its documents from the American Revolution promised."
* Journal of Social History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
A White Fist on Their Noses: Colonization and Violence
To Take Your Own Part: Violence among the Settlers
I Was Not There to Fight: The Decline and Persistence of Violence in the Late Nineteenth Century
Plucky Women and Crazed Indians: Representing Violence and Marginality in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver
To Do Just as He Pleased: Violence in the 1920s
Big as God Almighty and Undemanding as Dew: Violence and People of African and Japanese Descent
Epilogue: Discovering Violence
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Index
