Violence Against the Press: Policing the Public Sphere in U.S. History

In Violence Against the Press, John Nerone culls an important and original history of the US media from those points where contradictory political and social ideologies collide. Examining patterns of violence against US journalists from the American revolution to the present, Nerone argues that there is a legacy of suppression as old as the tradition of a free press, and that violent acts against the press are systematic rather than episodic. Nerone turns our attention away from the usual culprits in attacks on the press (extremist groups, wartime governments, fundamentalists) and instead points to political culture itself.