American History Too!

Ever thought that the United States is a more violent country than other ‘Western’ nations?  And, if so, have you ever wondered why?  

On Episode 18 of American History Too! we are joined by the University of Edinburgh’s Rian Sutton (@riansutton) to discuss America’s more violent nature by looking at what one historian terms its ‘homicide problem’ (n.b. it’s more complicated than guns and cowboys!). 

The reasons for the US’s higher murder rate than Europe since the mid-nineteenth century remain disputed and Rian, discussing her research on women and murder, illuminates this ongoing debate. Rian also outlines how women have murdered in the US, why some women have escaped prosecution despite damning evidence, and how the public have often reacted to such crimes.   

Finally, if you want to hear a whole lot of grizzly anecdotes – mostly featuring a woman wielding an axe – then this is the podcast for you!

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and we’ll be back next month with our next episode on ‘The President and The King’

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

@ahtoopodcast

 Reading:

• Britton, Dana M. ‘Feminism in Criminology: Engendering the Outlaw.’ American Academy of Political and Social Science 571, no. Sept (2000): 57-76.
• D’Cruze, Shani, Sandra Walklate, and Samantha Pegg. Murder: Social and Historical Approaches to Understanding Murder and Murderers.  London: Routledge, 2011.
• Filetti, Jean S. ‘From Lizzie Borden to Loren Bobitt: Violent Women and Gendered Justice.’ Journal of American Studies 35, no. 3 (2001): 471-484.  
• Halttunen, Karen. Murder Most Foul:  The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination.  London: Harvard University Press, 1998.
• Lane, Roger. Murder in America:  A History.  Columbus: The Ohio University Press, 1997.
• Lane, Roger. ‘Murder in America: A Historian’s Perspective.’ Crime and Justice 25, (1999): 191-224
• Linders, Annulla, and Alana Van Gundy-Yoder. ‘Gall, Gallantry, and the Gallows:  Capital Punishment and the Social Construction of Gender, 1840-1920.’ Gender and Society 22, no. 3 (2008): 324-48.
• Monkkonen, Eric H. Murder in New York City.  London: University of California Press, 2001.
• Monkkonen, Eric H. ‘AHR Forum: Homicide: Explaining America’s Exceptionalism.’ American Historical Review 111, (2006): 76-94.
• Roth, Randolph. American Homicide.  Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2009
• Shipman, Marlin. The Penalty Is Death:  U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Women’s Executions.  London: University of Missouri Press, 2002.