Bully Nation

A canny and sobering look at bullying behavior and how it permeates our nation's major institutions. When children do it, we abhor it. When our leaders do it, we usually applaud it. The authors remind us.--Oliver Stone This thoughtful study expertly dissects the 'bullying scourge' that poisons lives and society, exposing its roots in the institutional structure of a 'militaristic capitalist culture' that it reflects and nurtures, while also revealing the encouraging reactions that may offer cures for the malady and the factors that engender it.--Noam Chomsky Bully Nation is the most comprehensive analysis of bullying yet published. It is a brilliant book that refuses to define bullying as merely a psychological concept. Instead, it addresses in great detail the interplay of bullying as having its roots in a range of historical, economic, political, and social conditions. In this instance, bullying functions as a metaphor to connect the private the public, specific acts of violence to larger forms of systemic violence. Rather than treat bullying as part of a rite of passage confined to the often difficult process of growing up, Derber and Magrass treat it as a systemic force that produces values, social relations, structures, and collective identities steeped in violence and aggression. This is a powerful and compelling book that addresses one of the most important social problems of our time. It should be read by all educators, parents, and anyone else interested in a world free of aggression and violence. Bully Nation deserves widespread attention.--Henry Giroux, author of Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism [The] thesis that bullying is an endemic and fundamental feature of American society is compelling, even if it is an inconvenient truth.--Social ForcesA thought-provoking text that invites readers to reflect on the structural forces that drive individuals to engage in bullying behaviors and highlights the need for further, and more systematic, research on the development of bullying in the social media age, the rising tide of anti-bullying activism, and the effectiveness of the anti-bullying measures that have been enacted in recent years.--Political Science Quarterly Bully Nation is absolutely terrific, an important, powerful and timely book that should be read by academic and public audiences alike. The authors have done a remarkable job of taking the topical social problem of bullying, which has received a great deal of attention over the past decade, and extrapolating it to economic, political, corporate and militaristic bullying. We come to understand that bullying isn't just for the schoolyard, it's a socio-pathology woven throughout our culture and guiding much of the way that the political economy is run. Their illuminating analysis illustrates how corporations and governments bully not only citizens--the 99%--but also the planet, and with reckless abandon. The consequences are potentially dire--for our culture, for the middle class, for the nation's and world's poor, and for the survival of the planet. Without question, this is a book that will have wide appeal to academics, students, and public audiences. I imagine using this book in my own courses and am already anticipating with great excitement the important discussion that will be opened with my students as they grapple with the bully nation, and with the most important issues facing their generation.--Jonathan White, author of Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change, and Social JusticeDerber and Magrass force us to rethink our concept of bullying. Moving beyond the relatively limited focus on the psychological paradigm and interactions among children, they instead situate the process in a broader institutional context and relationships among adults. Their creative and expert treatment of bullying brings in the economy, the military, dominant political organizations, and indeed global inequalities as well. Their analysis o

Charles Derber is professor in the Department of Sociology at Boston College. Yale R. Magrass is Chancellor professor in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Acknowledgments 1. Rethinking Bullying: From the Individual to the Institution 2. Capital Bullying: Capitalism, Power, and Economic Bullying 3. Environmental Bullying: Bullying Animals and Bludgeoning Nature 4. Militarism as Bullying: The Superpower and the Schoolyard Bully 5. The Land of the Slave and the Home of the Bully: Race and Militarized Bullying 6. Marching to the Bully: How the Military Trains Bullies, Both Inside and Outside the Services 7. Schooling for Bullies: Education and Bullying 8. The Heartless World: All in the Family 9. The Antibullying Movement: The Cultural Contradictions of the Bully Nation Epilogue: Are There Solutions? New Ways to Think about Reducing Bullying Appendix: Our God, Our Bully: Israel, Jihad, and the Middle East-Ancient and Modern Notes Index