Description: "Drawing from the fields of history, philosophy, cognitive science, sociology, and literary theory, and quoting chilling contemporary accounts, historian Guy Lancaster argues that the act of lynching encompasses five distinct but overlapping types of violence"--
Review Quotes: "American Atrocity marks the further emergence of Guy Lancaster as a major voice in the re-writing of the history of racial violence in the US past. It shows to full advantage the command of sources that so distinguishes his work on ethnic cleansing in Arkansas, but adds deep, philosophically informed reflections probing the role of lynching in patterns of terror and in the reproduction of white supremacy. Compact, provocative, and attentive to complexity, this arresting book especially excels in showing the entanglements of extralegal punishments with state violence."
--David Roediger, author of How Race Survived US History