Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy

"The United States is in many ways a model for the world, yet for one of the most fundamental of all human concerns, the imperative to keep ourselves and our loved ones free from harm, American ingenuity has failed. Unique in all of the developed world, America is bathed in violence. Our churches and schools, our movie theaters and dance clubs and music festivals are no longer safe places to congregate. Our politics is consumed by fear and intimations of violence, and our foreign policy is centered on the violence that we export to the world or can inflict on others. Violence is foundational to America, and has become, it seems, America's most insoluble problem. But to solve this problem, we must first understand it. The Violence Inside Us examines the roots of human violence itself and the propensity of people to harm themselves and each other. The result is a carefully researched, deeply emotional, and personal book that dissects America's violence obsession through an evolutionary, historical, and economic lens. And the book takes a hard look at one distinctly American feature: a firearms industry that has for decades manipulated and dominated politics and culture in order to maintain a ghastly status quo and prevent even the most basic anti-violence measure from being implemented. Following his profound personal transformation in the wake of the Newtown mass murder and his subsequent immersion in the intertwined issues of freedom and firearms, Senator Chris Murphy dedicated himself to examining America's obsession with violent acts and why we've tolerated them for so long, to deeply explore all of the arguments and the latest research on want works and what doesn't, and to establish the steps we must take to change. The Violence Inside Us is the extraordinary result"--
The youngest-elected U.S. Senator presents a sweeping history of the origins of humanity’s violent impulses and obsession with firearms while exposing the national mythologies that block action against violence in today’s America.
Is America destined to always be a violent nation? This sweeping history by Chris Murphy, U.S. senator from Connecticut, explores the origins of our violent impulses, the roots of our obsession with firearms, and the mythologies that prevent us from confronting our national crisis. &;An excellent contribution to our understanding of human lethal aggression and how it can be reduced.&;&;Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined In many ways, the United States sets the pace for other nations to follow. Yet on the most important human concern&;the need to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from physical harm&;America isn&;t a leader. We are disturbingly laggard. Our churches and schools, our movie theaters and dance clubs, our workplaces and neighborhoods, no longer feel safe. To confront this problem, we must first understand it. In this carefully researched and deeply emotional book, Senator Chris Murphy dissects our country&;s violence-filled history and the role that our unique obsession with firearms plays in this national epidemic. Murphy tells the story of his profound personal transformation in the wake of the mass murder at Newtown, and his subsequent immersion in the complicated web of influences that drive American violence. Murphy comes to the conclusion that while America&;s relationship to violence is indeed unique, America is not inescapably violent. Even as he details the reasons we&;ve tolerated so much bloodshed for so long, he explains that we have the power to change. Murphy takes on the familiar arguments, obliterates the stale talking points, and charts the way to a fresh, less polarized conversation about violence and the weapons that enable it&;a conversation we urgently need in order to transform the national dialogue and save lives.