Joanna Bourke

¿Quiénes son los violadores? ¿Por qué hay personas que humillan y fuerzan sexualmente a otras? Los hombres no son violadores, nos dice. Sólo algunos lo son, y éstos no nacen, se hacen, porque la violacion y la violencia sexual estan profundamente enraizadas en entornos politicos, economicos y culturales especificos. Las duras paginas de este libro nos revelan el drama de una violencia que, pese a estar presente con frecuencia en los medios de comunicacion, no se denuncia apenas y, cuando se hace, solo un cinco por ciento de los casos termina en condena. A la autora no le es posible siquiera construir una narrativa de redencion de quienes causan sufrimientos tan grandes, aunque se atreva a imaginar un futuro sin violencia sexual. Bourke no es una historiadora comun. Se enfrenta a temas que la mayoria de los academicos procuran evitar y ha producido, entre otras cosas, aclamadas historias culturales sobre el asesinato y el miedo. Este es provocativo y desafiante (Maria Tumarkin, The Age).

About seven years ago I started working with the idea of the recovery of the memory of Spain''s recent history. First I considered an archaeological project centering on the material sediment of the Civil War in the old battlefields, specifically the Ebro front. At the same time, the Spanish Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH) had begun to locate, excavate and exhume the mass graves from the Spanish war and post-war. After a protracted struggle with two successive Catalan regional administrations of opposing ideological signs who thwarted my project in Catalonia, despite my having funding from two US foundations (Fulbright and American Center) and the support of two Catalan universities, I ended up doing it in Burgos in collaboration with the ARMH. This book documents an exercise in citizenship by a group of Spaniards determined to rescue a part of their history which had been sequestered.

It is almost universally accepted among writers on warfare that battle is a terrible experience, and that men who fight are at the very least sobered, and often deeply traumatized, by the horrors of combat. Bourke uses the letters, diaries, memoirs and reports of veterans from three conflicts - World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War - to establish a picture of the man-at-arms. What she suggests is that the structure of war encourages pleasure in killing, and that perfectly ordinary, gentle human beings can become enthusiastic killes without becoming "brutalized". Bourke forces the reader to face some disconcerting truths about society that can so easliy organize itself for war.

In 1872, a woman known only as "An Earnest Englishwoman" published a letter titled "Are Women Animals?" in which she protested against the fact that women were not treated as fully human. In fact, their status was worse than that of animals: regulations prohibiting cruelty against dogs, horses, and cattle were significantly more punitive than laws against cruelty to women. The Earnest Englishwomans heartfelt cry was for women to "becomeanimal" in order to gain the status that they were denied on the grounds that they were not part of "mankind."In this fascinating account, Joanna Bourke addresses the profound question of what it means to be "human" rather than "animal." How are people excluded from political personhood? How does one become entitled to rights? The distinction between the two concepts is a blurred line, permanently under construction. If the Earnest Englishwoman had been capable of looking 100 years into the future, she might have wondered about the human status of chimeras, or the ethics of stem cell research. Political disclosures and scientific advances have been relocating the humananimal border at an alarming speed. In this meticulously researched, illuminating book, Bourke explores the legacy of more than two centuries, and looks forward into what the future might hold for humans, women, and animals.

Fear is one of the most basic and most powerful of all the human emotions. Sometimes it is hauntingly specific: flames searing patterns on the ceiling, a hydrogen bomb, a terrorist. More often, anxiety overwhelms us from some source within: there is an irrational panic about venturing outside, a dread of failure, a premonition of doom. In this astonishing book we encounter the fears and anxieties of hundreds of British and American men, women and children. From fear of the crowd to agoraphobia, from battle experiences to fear of nuclear attack, from cancer to AIDS, this is an utterly original insight into the mindset of the twentieth century from one of most brilliant historians and thinkers of our time.

In 1872, a woman known only as An Ernest Englishwoman published an open letter entitled Are women animals?, in which she protested the fact that women were not treated as fully human. In reality, their status was worse than that of animals: regulations prohibiting cruelty against dogs, horses and cattle were significantly more punitive than laws against cruelty to women. What does it mean to be human rather than animal? If the Ernest Englishwoman had turned her gaze to the previous century, her critique could equally have applied to slaves. In her time and beyond, the debate around human status involved questions of language, facial physiology, and vegetarianism. If she had been capable of looking 100 years into the future, she might have wondered about chimeras, created by transplanting animal fluids and organs into human bodies, or the ethics of stem cell research. In this meticulously researched, wide-ranging and illuminating book, Joanna Bourke explores the legacy of more than two centuries, and looks forward to what the future might hold for humans and animals.

Wars are frequently justified in our name. Militarist values and practices co-opt us, permeating our language, invading our dream space, entertaining us at the movies or in front of game consoles. Our taxes pay for those war machines. Our loved ones are killed and maimed.With killing now an integral part of the entertainment industry in video games and Hollywood films, war has become mainstream.With the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the First World War, has come a deluge of books, documentaries, feature films and radio programmes. We will hear a great deal about the horror of the battlefield. Bourke acknowledges wider truths: war is unending and violence is deeply entrenched in our society. But it doesnt have to be this way. This book equips readers with an understanding of the history, culture and politics of warfare in order to interrogate and resist an increasingly violent world.

Joanna Bourke, author of the critically-acclaimed Fear, unflinchingly and controversially moves away from looking at victims to look at the rapists. She examines the nature of rape, drawing together the work of criminologists, sociologists and psychiatrists to analyse what drives the perpetrators of sexual violence. Rape - A History looks at the perception of rape, both in the mass media and the wider public, and considers the crucial questions of treatment and punishment. Should sexual offenders be castrated? Will Freuds couch or the behaviourists laboratory work most effectively? Particular groups of offenders such as female abusers, psychopaths and exhibitionists are given special attention here, as are potentially dangerous environments, including the home, prison, and the military. By demystifying the category of the rapist and revealing the specificities of the past, Joanna Bourke dares to consider a future in which sexual violence has been placed outside the human experience.

Las historia oficiales de las guerras nos hablan, sobre todo, de heroísmo y sufrimiento. Quienes participaron en ellas como combatientes prefieren, por lo general, callar acerca de sus experiencias. No, como se suele pensar, por no recordar los horrores que vivieron, sino para no verse obligados a confesar las satisfacciones que les proporciono el poder de destruir y matar. Partiendo de las evidencias de las dos guerras mundiales y de la de Vietnam, Joanna Bourke, profesora de historia del Birbeck College de Londres, ha escrito un libro estremecedor acerca de como se prepara a los hombres para matar y como estos acaban sintiendo placer matando a sus enemigos, incluso cuando se trata de asesinar a prisioneros indefensos. Al fin y al cabo no hacen mas que seguir unas ordenes de sus mandos, que incluso el propio clero castrense suele disculpar. Sed de sangre, que recibio el premio Fraenkel, que se concede a una obra excepcional de historia del siglo XX, cambiara nuestra percepcion de la naturaleza misma de la guerra.

Las historias oficiales de las guerras nos hablan, sobre todo, de heroísmo y sufrimiento. Quienes participaron en ellas como combatientes prefieren, por lo general, callar acerca de sus experiencias. No, como se suele pensar, por no recordar los horrores que vivieron, sino para no verse obligados a confesar la satisfaccion que les proporciono el poder de destruir y matar. Partiendo de las evidencias de las dos guerras mundiales y de la de Vietnam, Joanna Bourke, profesora de historia del Birkbeck College de Londres, ha escrito un libro estremecedor acerca de como se prepara a los hombres para matar y como estos acaban sintiendo placer matando a sus enemigos incluso cuando se trata de asesinar a prisioneros indefensos. Al fin y al cabo, no hacen mas que seguir las ordenes de sus mandos que incluso el propio clero castrense suele disculpar.Este libro, que recibio el premio Fraenkel, que se concede a una obra excepcional de historia del siglo XX, cambiara nuestra percepcion de la naturaleza misma de la guerra.

La segunda guerra mundial superó a todas las guerras anteriores en pérdidas de vidas humanas. Murieron millones de personas, la mayoría de ellas civiles, y lo que quedó fue un mundo devastado por la destruccion material.Con este libro, breve y objetivo, Joanna Bourke analiza los acontecimientos y sus consecuencias alli donde se libro la guerra: en toda la Europa central y occidental, en el frente oriental de la Union Sovietica, en el Pacifico, en Africa y en Asia. La autora muestra con claridad al lector el origen de las decisiones estrategicas militares, y sobre todo, su coste humano e individual. Recopilando entradas de diarios, historias orales, y testimonios personales, comprendemos los sentimientos del ciudadano de a pie ante los terribles acontecimiento que se desencadenaban a su alrededor.

Ningú no ha dit mai que matar sigui fàcil, però una guerra implica que un gran nombre de persones estiguin disposades a fer-ho. La Segona Guerra Mundial va portar aquesta exigència militar a unes nov