Our Recommendations

The phenomenon of political violence is frequently examined in both academic texts and popular media. Our contributors and readers have suggested a (by no means comprehensive) list of recommended books and films covering political violence, suggestions sparked by a series of posts by contributor Joe Young.

Books on Political Violence

Zehra Arat, Democracy and Human Rights in Developing Countries
Hannah Arendt, On Violence, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Robert H. Bates, Prosperity & Violence: The Political Economy of Development
Bill Buford, Among the Thugs
Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict
Oliver C. Cox, Caste, Class, and Race
Alexander B. Downes, Targeting Civilians in War
Walt Enders and Todd Sandler, The Political Economy of Terrorism
Cynthia Enloe, The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War
Virginia Page Fortna, Peace Time: Cease-fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace
Lee Ann Fujii, Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda
Daniel Q. Gillion, The Political Power of Protest: Minority Activism and Shifts in Public Policy
Jeff Goodwin, No Other Way Out
Joanne Gowa, Allies, Adversaries, and International Trade
Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy
Ted Robert Gurr, Why Men Rebel
Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, Making Human Rights a Reality
Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict
Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies
Stathis N. Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
Bert Klandermans and Suzanne Staggenborg, Methods Of Social Movement
Siniša Malešević, The Sociology of War and Violence
Julie Mazzei, Death Squads or Self-Defense Forces?: How Paramilitary Groups Emerge and Challenge Democracy in Latin America
Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention
Rose McDermott, Political Psychology in International Relations
Helen V. Milner, Interests, Institutions, and Information
Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast, Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History
Samuel L. Popkin, The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam
Donatella della Porta, Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany
Brenda Gayle Plummer, Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960, Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988
Hayagreeva Rao, Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovations
Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy
James B. Rule, Theories of Civil Violence
James C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Resistance
Beth A Simmons, Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics
Elliott P. Skinner, African Americans and U. S. Policy Toward Africa 1850-1924
Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions
Sarah A. Soule, Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility
Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution
Ashutosh Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civil Life: Hindus and Muslims in India
Barbara F. Walter, Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars
Jeremy M. Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence
Elisabeth Jean Wood, Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador

Films on Political Violence