Touching as it does on so many of the vibrant themes in American history, this book is a wonderful classroom resource. Eleven chapters deal with themes ranging from slavery to crime control. Each chapter consists of an introduction by the editors, a collection of between five and ten documents, and a guide to further reading.

However, as one would expect from such distinguished editors, the volume offers more than that. It yields ideas and guidance for more advanced scholars. A learned general introduction supplies an overarching view. Waldrep and Bellesiles do not go down the statistical road, and refrain from offering simple solutions to the complex puzzles of American violence. They choose as their analytical starting point the scholarly enquiry run by Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Graham Gurr on behalf of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. In the general introduction and subsequent chapter introductions, they build on that multi-authored source to supply what amounts to a historiographical primer. They review, in turn, Charles Tilly's cautions on exceptionalism, and Richard Hofstadter's contention that America's one exceptional trait is its capacity for denial. Richard M. Brown's distinction between “negative” and “positive” violence is explained, as is the difference between Brown's views and those of Joel Williamson, who placed a heavier emphasis on race. The introduction to the last chapter, on rape and other domestic abuses of women, is a little historiographical gem in its own right.

As its editors observe, the compact nature of the volume means there are significant exclusions. Given Bellesiles's expertise, it is a pity that there is no material on the contribution of gun cultures to American violence. Another omission stems from what Graham and Gurr called America's “historical amnesia” about violence. Hofstadter backed their claim that there had hitherto been no serious research into American violence, let alone its comparative dimensions. But this was an oversight. In the Progressive era, the Research Division of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations issued several reports on industrial violence, some of which offered international comparisons of policing methods, and several of which influenced New Deal legislation in the 1930s. An extract from the reports on violence by Edwin E. Witte or one of his colleagues would have been a welcome corrective to 1960s oversights, as well as a harmonious accompaniment to a glittering array of documents.