Jupiter, FL (January 25, 2011) – Dr. Christopher Strain, Associate Professor of History at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, is the author of the new book Reload: Re-thinking Violence in American Life. In light of the recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, Dr. Strain’s study of American violence is extremely timely. We thought that the impact of these events was the best time to introduce a new format of public announcements about Wilkes Honors College news and people in which we ask various members of our community 10 key questions.  Here, then, are the observations of one of FAU’s resident experts about the shootings in Tucson and the events discussed in his book.

I understand that your new book deals with issues quite similar to what just happened in Tucson.  How would you describe the research you’ve done?
Reload is a meditation on random violence and mass shootings:  why such things happen, and how they might be stopped.  It aims to examine the American ethos of violence, i.e., how beliefs, customs, ideas, and practices reinforce and reward violence at all levels of social interaction in this society; more specifically, it looks at the relationships between masculinity, electronic media, violent entertainment, and guns.  It examines how violence is mainstreamed and normalized in American life.  Finally, it seeks ways to prevent such incidents.

What inspired you to begin researching for Reload?
I was motivated to write it after the shootings at Virginia Tech in April, 2007. 

How long did it take you to research for and write the book?
Much of the research for this book resulted from preparation for a course I regularly teach at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, “Violence in the U.S.”  It took about three years to write and publish the book itself, but I’ve been teaching the course for the past decade, and the ideas have been percolating for a long time.

Have you also presented this particular set of research at a conference somewhere or another public setting?
No, not yet, but I’m setting up some readings and talks related to the book, including (hopefully) one at FAU.  I was recently contacted by a C-SPAN producer who would like to film a discussion of the book.

What other books have you written?
So far, I’ve published two other books:  Pure Fire: Self-Defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005) and Burning Faith: Church Arson in the American South (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008).

Those topics are rather diverse.  What is your field of study?
I specialize in twentieth-century U.S. history with emphases in American studies and African-American history.  My research interests include civil rights and hate crime. My books share a common theme of how violence affects community and vice versa.

How specifically does your research relate to the recent shootings in Tucson?
This is a book about the school shootings and mass shootings. About that kind of random senseless violence that is pervasive in our society.  A lot of the discussion about what happened in Arizona has centered on it as a political event, as an attempted assassination of a political figure that has come about as a result of this increasingly toxic political climate in the United States.  That’s certainly one angle to the story but I think another angle is that it could have happened anywhere. I think the fact that it happened to a congressional representative was the occasion of the crime and not necessarily the cause of the crime.

What do you hope to achieve with your book?
I hope to contribute to the public dialogue about violence in our society and how to lessen its ill effects in our society.  I hope readers come away from the book with a better understanding of the interrelationship between gender, violent entertainment, and guns, as well as a better sense of the ways that violence diminishes quality of life in the United States.

How has being at the Honors College helped with your research?
My students in the violence course have led me to new ways of understanding all sorts of things related to this subject—from violent video games to mixed martial arts (MMA).  And my colleagues have been very supportive of this work.

Okay, we’ve reached our tenth question.  So, what are your final thoughts on this topic?
While random violence can affect any person at any time, it’s not really random; that is, violence directed at no one in particular is directed at all of us in general.  Until we recognize that fact, I fear that events like the one in Tucson earlier this month will continue to recur.

byline: WHC Student Intern Tamara Howard