The literary and intellectual online magazine Berfrois recently published two new essays by Penn Press authors Michael B. Katz and Eric C. Schneider.
Katz's essay, "Where's the Violence?," compares manifestations of violence, inequality, and marginalization in the United States and Europe. He writes, "Collective violence had not erupted on American city streets. Instead, violence had turned inwards and manifested itself in drive-by shootings, gangs, and shocking homicide rates among young men. How and why had this happened?"
Schneider examines the American war on drugs and discusses flaws in past and current methods of reducing heroin use in "The Drug War Revisited." Schneider explains, "Heroin is a product that generates its own demand; that induces users to constantly create income-generating strategies; that absorbs the user in a process of self-consumption; that destroys both the user and the physical spaces in which use is concentrated. Conservative ideology has no answer to that."
Michael B. Katz is the author of the forthcoming book Why Don't American Cities Burn?. Eric C. Schneider wrote Smack: Heroin and the American City, which is now available in paperback. Both Katz and Schneider are history professors at the University of Pennsylvania.
