How and why did the acts of violence he analyzes occur? (Note that “violence” does not refer to the actual murder, but to the dynamics of crowd violence that followed it.)
This essay is based on Helmut Walser Smith’s book, entitled “The Butcher’s Tale”. This is a microhistory, or historical work that uses an isolated incident or location as a case study from which to draw broader observations about the historical context in which it is situated. “The Butcher’s Tale” considers the problem of collective violence […]