Amidst heightened rhetoric and increasing polarization in the United States, American Pogroms chronicles the causes and consequences of two centuries of mob violence in American history, highlighting exactly what's at stake when we allow leaders to legitimate violence and the mob to rule. For much of American history, members of the majority population of the United States indiscriminately attacked and terrorized minority communities. In some parts of the country, mob violence seemed a near-constant part of the regions history, while in others it was a brief, horrific spasm that perpetrators—but not victims—quickly forgot. In American Pogroms, terrorism expert Daniel Byman argues that there is a word for this type of communal violence: pogrom. Although pogroms are historically associated with the orchestrated campaigns of anti-Jewish violence in Tsarist Russia, Byman asserts that pogroms have been an all-too-frequent feature of American history. Tracing two centuries of communal violence, Byman recounts cases of attacks against American religious minorities such as Catholics and Mormons, the killing of thousands of ethnic Mexicans in Texas, the murder and wholesale expulsion of Chinese workers from the American West, and the repeated attacks on the Black community that killed thousands and enabled decades of brutal discrimination. In all these cases, pogroms helped cement a system of injustice that left religious, ethnic, and racial minorities politically and economically marginalized. While the idea of mob violence now strikes most Americans as unthinkable, Byman warns that increased polarization and selective news consumption in recent years has coarsened discourse and legitimized violence, raising the risk that at least some violence will return. A broad-ranging synthesis of how and why majorities have so frequently resorted to community-level violence to restore or cement their power, American Pogroms illustrates the outsized role of violence in U.S. history and how it shapes the country today.
Industry Reviews
"American Pogroms is an absolutely harrowing but immensely timely and important book. Byman brings his customary meticulous scholarship to dissect America's ugly history of race riots and religious persecution. His purpose though is not despair but to provide a positive path forward by learning from the past." -- Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations
"A creative and ambitious synthesis of mob violence in American history, this book stands out for the clarity of its conceptual framework and the coherence of its narrative. Its unusually wide ranging coverage allows readers to grasp the scale, patterns, and consequences of violence aimed at minority communities." -- Jason Morgan Ward, Professor of History, Emory University
"Drawing on deep research and vivid case studies, American Pogroms illustrates how violence against minorities has proven a recurring theme of American life, more norm than exception or deviation. Using compelling storytelling across time and geography, it shows how mobs have shaped elections, citizenship, and the boundaries of democracy from the early days of the republic up until the present day. By placing modern unrest in a wider historical
context, it provokes a more honest accounting of America's past." -- Benjamin Wittes, Editor-in-Chief, Lawfare
"Timely and jarring in its exploration of American violence as seen against the backdrop of Russia's anti-Jewish eruptions. A pastiche of terrible, if also instructive moments long sequestered yet crucial to understanding the American saga." -- Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History
