The Victims Revolution

Gender ideology. The “anti-racism” craze. The #MeToo movement. Sanctuary cities. These are among the building blocks of our new “woke” world, which, during the last few years, seemed to explode out of nowhere. But it didn’t emerge from nowhere. It originated on the campuses of some of our most respected colleges and universities. Over the past several decades, more and more faculty members at those institutions have exchanged humanism for radicalism. Rejecting the search for truth, they’ve become purveyors of ideology. They’re no longer teachers, but propagandists; once devoted to the spread of knowledge, they now focus on power dynamics, seeing oppression everywhere and viewing everyone around them through the lens of group identity. Among the most egregious consequences of this intellectual transformation has been the increasing prominence and power of disciplines called “identity studies”⎯among them Women’s Studies, Black Studies, Queer Studies, and even more recently, Fat Studies and Whiteness Studies. In The Victims’ Revolution, Bruce Bawer gives us the first true history of this phenomenon. He takes us on a tour of the campuses, classrooms, and conferences where we see and hear professors proudly pushing these new orthodoxies. On every page, we can observe the origins of the virus that, in the past decade, has escaped from the ivory tower and infected the whole Western world.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

The Sexual Revolution has brought misery to millions. No one has taken responsibility for this damage. This book exposes the lies of the Sexual Revolution.

The PEN New England Award–winning author returns to Egypt, Maine, where revolution is brewing in a rural compound as the twenty-first century approaches. It’s September 1999, and Gordon St. Onge, known as “The Prophet”, presides over his controversial Settlement in rural Maine. It is rumored to be a cult, where his many wives and children live off the land and off the grid. The newest member, fifteen year old Brianna Vandermast, is fired up and ready for change. Forming her own militia, Bree spreads her vision by writing “The Recipe”, an incendiary revolutionary document that winds up in the hands of wealthy elites—including one who is about to have a fateful encounter with Gordon. A chance drinking session during an airport layover brings Gordon together with multinational CEO Bruce Hummer. Bruce hands Gordon a mysterious brass key which has the potential to spark the unrest that is stirring in Egypt, Maine. As word of “The Recipe” spreads, myriad factions from across the country arrive at The Settlement wanting to make Gordon their poster boy. Gordon soon finds himself at the center of an uprising, the consequences of which no one can predict.

A thoughtful, lavishly illustrated, and highly readable account of the fabulous French fashion world in the pre-Revolutionary period This engrossing book chronicles one of the most exciting, controversial, and extravagant periods in the history of fashion: the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in 18th-century France. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell offers a carefully researched glimpse into the turbulent era's sophisticated and largely female-dominated fashion industry, which produced courtly finery as well as promoted a thriving secondhand clothing market outside the royal circle. She discusses in depth the exceptionally imaginative and uninhibited styles of the period immediately before the French Revolution, and also explores fashion's surprising influence on the course of the Revolution itself. The absorbing narrative demonstrates fashion's crucial role as a visible and versatile medium for social commentary, and shows the glittering surface of 18th-century high society as well as its seedy underbelly. Fashion Victims presents a compelling anthology of trends, manners, and personalities from the era, accompanied by gorgeous fashion plates, portraits, and photographs of rare surviving garments. Drawing upon documentary evidence, previously unpublished archival sources, and new information about aristocrats, politicians, and celebrities, this book is an unmatched study of French fashion in the late 18th century, providing astonishing insight, a gripping story, and stylish inspiration.

An incisive look at the causes and consequences of the Rwandan genocide "When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population." So a political commissar in the Rwanda Patriotic Front reflected after the 1994 massacre of as many as one million Tutsis in Rwanda. Underlying his statement was the realization that, though ordered by a minority of state functionaries, the slaughter was performed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, including judges, doctors, priests, and friends. Rejecting easy explanations of the Rwandan genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, When Victims Become Killers situates the tragedy in its proper context. Mahmood Mamdani coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutus to turn so brutally on their neighbors. In so doing, Mamdani usefully broadens understandings of citizenship and political identity in postcolonial Africa and provides a direction for preventing similar future tragedies.

Outlines the successes and failures of the movement to support survivors of violence The Victims’ Rights Movement (VRM) has been one of the most meaningful criminal justice reforms in the United States. Every state and the federal government has adopted major VRM laws to enact protections for victims and increase criminal sanctions, and the movement has received support from politicians of all backgrounds. Despite recognition of its excesses, the movement remains an important force in the criminal justice arena. The Victims' Rights Movement offers a measured overview of the successes and the failures of the VRM. Among its widely acknowledged accomplishments are expanded resources to help victims deal with trauma, greater sensitivity to sexual assault victims in many jurisdictions, and increased chances of victims receiving restitution from perpetrators of harm. Conversely, the movement has led to excessive punishment for many defendants and destruction of defendants’ families. It has exacerbated racial inequality in the imposition of the death penalty and criminal sentencing generally, and falsely promises “closure” to crime victims and their families. Michael Vitiello considers whether the VRM serves those injured by crime well by focusing on “victimhood.” He urges a reframing of the movement to fight for universal health care and limits on access to weapons—two policies that would reduce the number of victims and help those who do become victims of crime.

In the 20th century, communism claimed the lives of at least 100 million people. But often it is regarded with more sympathy than the other deadly totalitarian creed, national socialism. Despite several plausible accounts of famines, mass executions, labour camps and oppression, many Western intellectuals were either supporters or fellow-travellers of the communists. This illustrated report is about some of the most noteworthy books, travelogues, novels, memories, and historical treatises that came out in the great struggle between totalitarian communism and liberal democracy from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution onwards.