Going Postal

Exploring the rage-murder phenomenon that has both plagued and baffled America for the last three decades, Going Postal offers provocative answers to the oft-asked question, “Why?”

American workers and children are rebelling violently all around us. By juxtaposing the historical place of rage in America with the social climate that has existed since the 1980s–when Reaganomics began to widen the gap between executive and average-worker earnings–Ames crafts a convincing argument that these schoolyard and office massacres can be seen as modern-day slave rebellions. He explores numerous fascinating and unexpected cases in detail, showing that as with slave rebellions, these massacres are doomed, gory, sometimes even inadvertently comic, and grossly misunderstood.

Taking up where Bowling for Columbine left off, this book seeks to set these murders in their proper context, thereby revealing their true meaning. Ames updates this edition with an eye toward recent events, including several new essays taking on the violent episodes at Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech universities, as well as workplace outrages like that in Alabama in March 2009. With the economy slumping and shooting rampages seemingly on the rise, Ames’s wide-scoped explanations have never been more prudent.