Violence and Morality

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Related Books:


Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means
(William T. Vollmann)

Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment
(Harold Schechter)

Assassination Vacation
(Sarah Vowell)

Gilgamesh: A New English Version

Incidental Music:

Avaz-e-Dashti
(Yo-Yo Ma)
Lincoln's Funeral Train
(Norman Blake & Tony Rice)
Rising Up and Rising Down
07.23.2006
 (was 07.03.2005)

Do you ever have a right to kill?  What about Israeli agents who assassinate Hamas leaders?  Or suicide bombers who blow up their enemies?  Do the ends justify the means?  William Vollman has written a three-thousand page treatise on the morality of violence.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll talk to him about living in a violent world.

  1. William Vollmann on Violence

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    Novelist and journalist William Vollmann has written a seven volume study of the moral calculus of violence. Vollmann talks with Steve Paulson about when violence is justified and when it isn’t.

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  2. Harold Schechter on "Savage Pastimes"

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    Historian Harold Schechter tells Anne Strainchamps that violence has always been an important part of popular entertainment and our ancestors enjoyed truly grisly spectacles.

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  3. Sarah Vowell on "Assassination Vacation"

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    Sarah Vowell is obsessed with presidential assassinations. She talks with Steve Paulson about the lingering mystery and drama surrounding the murder of Abraham Lincoln.

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  4. Stephen Mitchell on Gilgamesh

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    Stephen Mitchell has composed a new translation of “Gilgamesh,” the epic poem of ancient Mesopotamia.

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