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Payback: The Case for Revenge
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Payback: The Case for Revenge Hardback - 2013

by Thane Rosenbaum

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Drawing on a wide range of support, from recent studies in behavioral psychology and neuroeconomics, to stories of vengeance and justice denied, to revenge practices from around the world, to the way in which revenge tales have permeated popular culture, Rosenbaum demonstrates that vengeance needs to be more openly and honestly discussed.

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From the publisher

We call it justice--the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the incarceration of corrupt politicians or financiers like Rod Blagojevich and Bernard Madoff, and the climactic slaying of cinema-screen villains by superheroes. But could we not also call it revenge? We are told that revenge is uncivilized and immoral, an impulse that individuals and societies should actively repress and replace with the order and codes of courtroom justice. What, if anything, distinguishes punishment at the hands of the government from a victim's individual desire for retribution? Are vengeance and justice really so very different? No, answers legal scholar and novelist Thane Rosenbaum in Payback: The Case for Revenge--revenge is, in fact, indistinguishable from justice. Revenge, Rosenbaum argues, is not the problem. It is, in fact, a perfectly healthy emotion. Instead, the problem is the inadequacy of lawful outlets through which to express it. He mounts a case for legal systems to punish the guilty commensurate with their crimes as part of a societal moral duty to satisfy the needs of victims to feel avenged. Indeed, the legal system would better serve the public if it gave victims the sense that vengeance was being done on their behalf. Drawing on a wide range of support, from recent studies in behavioral psychology and neuroeconomics, to stories of vengeance and justice denied, to revenge practices from around the world, to the way in which revenge tales have permeated popular culture--including Hamlet, The Godfather, and Braveheart--Rosenbaum demonstrates that vengeance needs to be more openly and honestly discussed and lawfully practiced.
Fiercely argued and highly engaging, Payback is a provocative and eye-opening cultural tour of revenge and its rewards--from Shakespeare to The Sopranos. It liberates revenge from its social stigma and proves that vengeance is indeed ours, a perfectly human and acceptable response to moral injury. Rosenbaum deftly persuades us to reconsider a misunderstood subject and, along the way, reinvigorates the debate on the shape of justice in the modern world.

Details

  • Title Payback: The Case for Revenge
  • Author Thane Rosenbaum
  • Binding Hardback
  • Pages 328
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill
  • Publication date 2013-04
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780226726618 / 0226726614
  • Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 in (23.11 x 15.75 x 3.05 cm)
  • Category Legal Reference / Law Profession
  • Library of Congress subjects Punishment - Philosophy
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2012043341
  • Dewey Decimal Code 364.601

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 12/01/2013, Page 0
  • Library Journal, 06/15/2013, Page 104
  • Publishers Weekly, 04/08/2013, Page 0

About the author

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, and law professor. He is the author of The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right, as well as four novels, The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, the novel-in-stories, Elijah Visible, and the novel for young adults, The Stranger within Sarah Stein. His articles, reviews, and essays appear frequently in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Huffington Post, among others. He lives in New York, where he is the John Whelan Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Fordham Law School and directs the Forum on Law, Culture, and Society.

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Payback: The Case for Revenge
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Payback: The Case for Revenge

by Rosenbaum, Thane

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Payback: The Case for Revenge
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Payback: The Case for Revenge

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Payback : The Case for Revenge
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Payback : The Case for Revenge
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Payback : The Case for Revenge

by Rosenbaum, Thane

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226726618 / 0226726614
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Hardback. New. We call it justice - the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the incarceration of corrupt politicians or financiers, and the slaying of cinema-screen villains by superheroes. But could we not also call it revenge? Revenge, the author argues, is not the problem. Instead, the problem is the inadequacy of lawful outlets through which to express it.
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Payback: The Case for Revenge
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Payback: The Case for Revenge

by Rosenbaum, Thane

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Payback: The Case for Revenge

by Rosenbaum, Thane

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9780226726618 / 0226726614
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