Book-It 'o11! Book #10
Mar. 9th, 2011 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one and two, just in case you're curious.) This was a secondhand find.
Title: Life: The Most Notorious Crimes in American History (an Updated and Expanded Version of Life's Classic Book of Dastardly Deeds) by the editors of Life magazine.
Details: Copyright 2010, Twenty-First Century Books
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Information): "The stories beguile us even as they appall us. The Lindberg baby kidnapping...the murder of Nicole Simpson...the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy...the Manson Family...the St. Valentine's Day Masscare...the Oklahoma City bombing. Each, in its time, laid claim to being the Crime of the Century. Each was captured by the camera, either in the act or at trial. In this special edition of Life, these stories of crime and punishment, lawlessness and justice, are vividly retold."
Why I Wanted to Read It: My interest in the study of crime (particularly when it comes to forensics) is well known.
How I Liked It: The book offers a bite-sized piece of arguably the most notorious crimes in our history (I say arguably as the book itself admits a dodgy stance on certain crimes, for example 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and covers a few serial killers (the Boston Strangler, the Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, the DC Snipers) while making some fairly glaring omissions-- Jeffrey Dahmer comes to mind) paired with (as expected) Life magazine's photography to accompany each listing.
The book is a primer for those beginning their study of American crime and a think-piece for those that have studied it for years; why are some listings linked together (Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the Amish schoolhouse shooting share one entry whereas the Bath School disaster warrants its own-- the casualty count was higher, but Columbine had a deeper cultural impact) and why are some included when it's not certain a crime was even committed (the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa)? The book includes Joey Buttafuoco, but omits Lorena Bobbitt, covers the murder of Christa Worthington, but not JonBenét Ramsey, leaves an entry for Amanda Knox but not for Tonya Harding, notes Watergate but makes no mention of MonicaGate. And those are only a few examples.
Such curious decisions are worthy prompts for what constitutes greater notoriety as well as why exactly certain crimes receive more media attention than others and ergo what cultural statement that suggests.
A decent if (arguably) flawed book for both the novice and the jaded.
Notable: The book offers crimes from primarily the 20th century and cheekily asserts a joke The Onion employed in Our Dumb Century: with each new media blitz, the press insists that this time, this crime is genuinely the crime of the century.
Title: Life: The Most Notorious Crimes in American History (an Updated and Expanded Version of Life's Classic Book of Dastardly Deeds) by the editors of Life magazine.
Details: Copyright 2010, Twenty-First Century Books
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Information): "The stories beguile us even as they appall us. The Lindberg baby kidnapping...the murder of Nicole Simpson...the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy...the Manson Family...the St. Valentine's Day Masscare...the Oklahoma City bombing. Each, in its time, laid claim to being the Crime of the Century. Each was captured by the camera, either in the act or at trial. In this special edition of Life, these stories of crime and punishment, lawlessness and justice, are vividly retold."
Why I Wanted to Read It: My interest in the study of crime (particularly when it comes to forensics) is well known.
How I Liked It: The book offers a bite-sized piece of arguably the most notorious crimes in our history (I say arguably as the book itself admits a dodgy stance on certain crimes, for example 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and covers a few serial killers (the Boston Strangler, the Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, the DC Snipers) while making some fairly glaring omissions-- Jeffrey Dahmer comes to mind) paired with (as expected) Life magazine's photography to accompany each listing.
The book is a primer for those beginning their study of American crime and a think-piece for those that have studied it for years; why are some listings linked together (Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the Amish schoolhouse shooting share one entry whereas the Bath School disaster warrants its own-- the casualty count was higher, but Columbine had a deeper cultural impact) and why are some included when it's not certain a crime was even committed (the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa)? The book includes Joey Buttafuoco, but omits Lorena Bobbitt, covers the murder of Christa Worthington, but not JonBenét Ramsey, leaves an entry for Amanda Knox but not for Tonya Harding, notes Watergate but makes no mention of MonicaGate. And those are only a few examples.
Such curious decisions are worthy prompts for what constitutes greater notoriety as well as why exactly certain crimes receive more media attention than others and ergo what cultural statement that suggests.
A decent if (arguably) flawed book for both the novice and the jaded.
Notable: The book offers crimes from primarily the 20th century and cheekily asserts a joke The Onion employed in Our Dumb Century: with each new media blitz, the press insists that this time, this crime is genuinely the crime of the century.
