Book blogging

Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment by Harold Schechter

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I like to bring books to school as I finish them to share them with my students as a way to inspire them to read. I won't be doing that with this one.

There were pictures.

They were mostly illustrations from very old thrill rags - by very old I mean eighteenth century and older, but even so they were more graphic than I'd want to share with my students.

The author's main argument is that they hysterics over the violence in the media - TV, movies, video games - is blown out of proportion. As it turns out, our culture is far less violent now than it has been in the past, and that vicarious violence or violent imagery can actually serve to reduce violence in society.

It was a pretty fascinating book.

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