Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Virginia Tech Massacre
Winner-2008 AESA Critics' Choice Book Award\ From the recent shootings at Virginia Tech University to the tragedies at Columbine and Oklahoma City, certain common traits can be traced. In Guys and Guns Amok, media and cultural critic Douglas Kellner provides a fascinating diagnostic reading of these acts of domestic terrorism. Skillfully connecting each case with male socialization and the search for identity in an American culture obsessed with guns and militarism, Kellner’s work is a...
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Winner-2008 AESA Critics' Choice Book AwardFrom the recent shootings at Virginia Tech University to the tragedies at Columbine and Oklahoma City, certain common traits can be traced. In Guys and Guns Amok, media and cultural critic Douglas Kellner provides a fascinating diagnostic reading of these acts of domestic terrorism. Skillfully connecting each case with male socialization and the search for identity in an American culture obsessed with guns and militarism, Kellner’s work is a sobering reflection on these tragedies and the pervasive power of media and popular culture. It sends a wake-up call to avert the next school shooting on the horizon.See Doug Kellner's interview on Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Acknowledgments viiIntroduction: Media Spectacle and the "Virginia Tech Massacre" 1The Time of the Spectacle 3Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" and Its Limitations 7Reading the Spectacle with Critical Social Theory and Cultural Studies 9Societal Violence and Guys and Guns Amok 14The Epidemic of School Shootings 19Media Culture, Militarism, and Violent Masculinity 26In This Book 28Deconstructing the Spectacle: Race, Guns, and the Culture Wars 33The Shootings and the Politics of Race 33A Convocation and Cho's Multimedia Dossier 38Guns and Political Scapegoating 43School and Workplace Security: The Debate Begins 50Mourning, Copycats, and Ideological Manipulation 53The Situation of Contemporary Youth 61From Boomers to Busters 63Post-Boomers and Contemporary Youth 69Youth Alienation, Violence, and the War against Youth 74The Struggle against the War on Youth 76Perils of Youth 83Constructing Male Identities and the Spectacle of Terror 89White Male Identity Politics 90Militia, Right-Wing Extremism, and Terrorist Bombings 95Home-Grown Terrorism: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing 100Harvest of Rage 107The Unabomber and the Politics of Terror 113Middle-Class White Male Columbine High School Shootings 118The Columbine Media Spectacle and Its Exploitation 119Shooting at Columbine with Michael Moore: Guns, U.S. History, and Violence in America 126Seung-Hui Cho in the Borderlands between the Korean and the American 131What Is to Be Done? 139Aftermath 142Gun Laws, School and Workplace Safety, and Mental Health Care: The Delicate Balance 146Beyond the Culture of Male Violence and Rage 154New Literacies, Democratization, and the Reconstruction of Education 159Politics, Prisons, and the Abolition Democracy Project 164Horrors of the Prison-Industrial-Military Complex 165The Time of Abolitions 167Notes 172References 201Index 208
