The essays in this book address the inter-relationship of power, politics, and violence, examining why the political process of managing power within states sometimes becomes physically violent. This volume brings together some of the classic writings on the relationship between states and violence within some of the best new work on political violence in local settings. The essays address state-backed violence against citizens and subjects, and violence by citizens against the state and between citizens for control of the state.

HANNAH ARENDT Political Theorist BEGOÑA ARETXAGA Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas ZYGMUNT BAUMAN Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Leeds RHONDA COPELON Vice President, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York City MARTHA CRENSHAW John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Wesleyan University ALEXANDER LABAN HINTON Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Rutgers University CYNTHIA MAHMOOD Fellow, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame BARRINGTON MOORE Previously Lecturer in Sociology and Senior Research Fellow, Russian Research Center CAROLYN NORDSTROM Associate Professor of Anthropology and Fellow, Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame JULIE PETEET Chair and Associate Professor of Antropology, University of Louisville MICHAEL TAUSSIG Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University CHARLES TILLY Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University MAX WEBER (Deceased) Author and Leading Founder of Modern Sociology