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Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition
January 13, 2019 @ 8:30 am - 10:30 am
UNC Professor W. Fitzhugh Brundage will talk about his recent book, “Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition.”
Most Americans believe that a civilized state does not resort to torture, and yet, as W. Fitzhugh Brundage reveals in this essential and disturbing study, there is a long American tradition of excusing as well as decrying its use.
The pilgrims and merchants who first came to America from Europe professed an intention to create a society free of the barbarism of Old World tyranny and New World savagery. But over the centuries Americans have turned to torture during moments of crisis at home and abroad and have debated its legitimacy in defense of law and order.
From the Indian wars to Civil War POW prisons and early penitentiaries, from “the third degree” in police stations and racial lynchings to the War on Terror, U.S. institutions have proven to be far more amenable to torture than the nation’s professed commitment to liberty would suggest. Legal and racial inequality fostered many opportunities for state agents to wield excessive power, which they justified as essential for American safety and well-being.
Reconciling state violence with the aspirations of Americans for social and political justice is an enduring challenge. By tracing the historical debates about the efficacy of torture and the attempt to adapt it to democratic values, Civilizing Torture reveals the recurring struggle to decide what limits Americans are willing to impose on the power of the state. At a time of escalating rhetoric aimed at cleansing the nation of the undeserving, as well as ongoing military involvement in conflicts around the world, the debate over torture remains a critical and unresolved part of America’s tradition.
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According to Prof. Brundage, his book “attempts to place the controversy around ‘enhanced interrogation tactics’ that dominated the national conversation during the War on Terror and in a larger context throughout American history. The work underscores that Americans have reconciled themselves to the use of torture during ’emergencies’ far more often than the national conscience acknowledges.”
Amazon.com has the book for sale, and here is a quote from one of the reviewers:
“That Americans as a people and a nation-state are violent is indisputable. That we are also torturers, domestically and internationally, is not so well established. The myth that we are not torturers will persist, but Civilizing Torture will remain a powerful antidote in confronting it.” ―Lawrence Wilkerson, Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy, The College of William and Mary, and former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, 2002–2005
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William Fitzhugh Brundage is an American historian. He is the William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the author of five books.
