Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  The Light of Days By:   Judy Batalion Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton The Light of Days is a harrowing and tortuous journey through Poland under the body and soul crushing acts of vicious Nazi aggression experienced by courageous Jewish women who creatively energized Jewish resistance with presence, weapons, and nourishment. Some were destroyed. Some survived. My interest in World War II stems from the stories my parents told of surviving the Nazi blitz of London. Since then, I have read various accounts of the bloody global war. And my wife and I have visited World War II and Holocaust Museums around the world as we learned about the Holocaust . The Light of Days stands out from the rest because it is about the role of women in the Jewish resistance-- a subject about which I had little knowledge. I found the book difficult to read for more than one reason. Despite previous reading about the horror of the Nazi doctors and the brutality of the Nazi invad...

  Columbine: A True Crime Story— A Victim, the Killers  and the Nation’s Search for Answers,  2 nd  ed . By Jeff Kass, 2014 Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton It’s 2022. We’ve heard of several mass shootings this year. Sadly, we know the routine. The news media head to the scene of the massacre. We get early reports from law enforcement. We see heart wrenching images of incredibly sad people near the scene where loved ones have fallen. We learn about the numbers of people killed and injured. We hear the familiar words of political leaders attempting to offer support. We hear about gun control and the need for more security. Sometimes we learn about life-costing mistakes. We see images of flowers and bears at makeshift memorials. We learn about funeral services. And then the images fade until next time. It was April 20, 1999 when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine High School. They murdered 12 students and 1 teacher. More were injured—21 of 24 were in...

  The Violence Project How to Stop A Mass Shooting Epidemic      By Jillian Peterson & James Densley Reviewed by Geoffrey W.Sutton Most of the time, mass shootings command the top spot on the evening news. By now the sequence of covering the crime scene is familiar—too familiar. Jillian Peterson and James Densley have studied mass shootings for several years. They’ve built a data base and interviewed killers, survivors, and family members of victims and killers. The Violence Project tells the story of mass murder and offers ideas and resources that might help some of us prevent the next major event. In fact, they also tell stories of avoided shootings and some that could have been avoided if policies or laws were closely followed. Although the authors mention some shootings outside the US, their focus is on America where 85% of the US killers were born and raised. TRAUMA . Before suggesting ideas that may help avert future disasters and hel...

  Line of Duty, a police drama, is one of the most popular BBC TV series of all time. BBC BBC Created by   Ted Mercurio Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton Line of Duty engages viewers at different levels. The show is an action-adventure police mystery drama that keeps viewers wondering what will happen in the next episode. It's also an insightful look into human nature and the relationships that shape behavior. The series features two officers who work as partners in an anti-corruption unit known as AC-12. DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) is an AFO (Authorised Firearms Officer). He joins the anti-corruption  unit after refusing to join his team in covering up the fatal shooting of an innocent man. His partner is DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) who is also an AFO. The other main character is AC-12 Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) who doggedly pursues bent coppers. His Catholic-Irish roots are revealed in sayings, accent, and his history of pol...

  THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE:     WHY VIOLENCE HAS DECLINED.       By Steven Pinker  Reviewed by    Kayla Jordan*  & Geoffrey W. Sutton There's a shooting in a mall, a restaurant, a school. Christians or Muslims are being killed here or there. It looks like things are getting worse. But Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker doesn't think so as he explains in, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Kayla Jordan was one of my research students interested in moral psychology. We decided to read The Better Angels of Our Nature and write a review, which was published in 2012. I'm drawing on our joint review for this blog post. I listed her name above because she was the lead author in the published book review. I'll give the reference to the academic review below. ***** Steven Pinker combines historical and psychological research to argue the case for a decline in global viole...

THE NAZI DOCTORS Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide   By  Robert Jay Lifton Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton Lifton peers into the lives of physicians who killed millions. He examines the beliefs and practices of Nazi culture, which provided a biomedical context for ridding Germany of disease by exterminating those targeted as responsible for such disease. In an evil irony, healers frame killing in an expanding narrative that ultimately reaches the level of genocide. In addition to records, Lifton included interviews with surviving Nazi physicians and some prisoner doctors who served as their underlings in Auschwitz. Lifton discloses his perspective, which is that of a an American psychiatrist, a Jew, with a psychoanalytic perspective informed in part by the ideas of Otto Rank. In the Introduction, Lifton informs us of key elements of his psychological model. People seek to deal with mortality by seeking immortality in various life proj...