On his book Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition
Cover Interview of April 17, 2019
The wide angle
My interest in these historical events is a product of our
times. Prior to 2004 it is unlikely that I would have written a book about
torture in the United States. But following the early revelations about the
acts of torture and cruelty at Abu Ghraib and about “enhanced interrogation”
techniques used by the CIA during the War on Terror my attention was drawn to
the debate that ensued. In particular, I recall watching Senator John McCain as
he denounced torture and insisted that torture was contrary to American
principles. Americans, he vowed, do not torture. On this topic, he spoke with
extraordinary gravitas, because he himself had been a victim of torture during
the Vietnam War. I appreciated the sentiment that McCain expressed, even while
I disagreed with its premise. After all, my first book had been on lynching in
the American South between 1880 and 1930 so I knew for a fact that some
Americans had committed torture and that they had done so unapologetically.
Prompted by curiosity about the Bush administration’s
justifications for its policies, I did what historians do; I searched the
library for scholarship to make sense of them. I had no intention of
researching and writing on the topic at the time. I delved into the writings of
human rights activists and legal specialists who traced the campaign against
torture during the previous half century. But I searched in vain for a
systematic account of torture in the United States. Civilizing Torture,
eventually, took form as my effort to fill this void.
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The wide angle
My interest in these historical events is a product of our times. Prior to 2004 it is unlikely that I would have written a book about torture in the United States. But following the early revelations about the acts of torture and cruelty at Abu Ghraib and about “enhanced interrogation” techniques used by the CIA during the War on Terror my attention was drawn to the debate that ensued. In particular, I recall watching Senator John McCain as he denounced torture and insisted that torture was contrary to American principles. Americans, he vowed, do not torture. On this topic, he spoke with extraordinary gravitas, because he himself had been a victim of torture during the Vietnam War. I appreciated the sentiment that McCain expressed, even while I disagreed with its premise. After all, my first book had been on lynching in the American South between 1880 and 1930 so I knew for a fact that some Americans had committed torture and that they had done so unapologetically.
Prompted by curiosity about the Bush administration’s justifications for its policies, I did what historians do; I searched the library for scholarship to make sense of them. I had no intention of researching and writing on the topic at the time. I delved into the writings of human rights activists and legal specialists who traced the campaign against torture during the previous half century. But I searched in vain for a systematic account of torture in the United States. Civilizing Torture, eventually, took form as my effort to fill this void.