Acts of violence assume many forms: they may travel bythe arc of a guided missile or in the language of an economic policy, and theymay leave behind a smoldering village or a starved child. The all-pervasivenessof violence makes it seem like an unavoidable, and ultimately incomprehensible,aspect of the modern world. But, in this detailed and expansive book, Marc Pilisuk and Jen Rountree demonstrateotherwise. Widespread violence, they argue, is in fact an expression of theunderlying social order,...