AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Monday, July 14, 2014

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 reopened what many people in America had long assumed was a settled ethical question: Is torture ever morally permissible? Within days, some began to suggest that, in these new circumstances, the new answer was "yes." Rebecca Gordon argues that September 11 did not, as some have said, "change everything," and that institutionalized state torture remains as wrong today as it was on the day before those terrible attacks. Furthermore, U.S. practices during the "war on terror" are rooted in a history that began long before September 11, a history that includes both support for torture regimes abroad and the use of torture in American jails and prisons.

Rebecca Gordon received her B.A. from Reed College and her M.Div. and Ph.D. in Ethics and Social Theory from Graduate Theological Union. She teaches in the Philosophy department at the University of San Francisco and for the university’s Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. Previous publications include Letters From Nicaragua and Cruel and Usual: How Welfare "Reform" Punishes Poor People. She is a member of the War Times organizing committee.

Talks by Rebecca Gordon on Mainstreaming Torture:

Tuesday, 7/29 7:00 pm: Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, Cambridge, MA

Thursday, 7/31 7:00pm: UU Church, 669 Union Street, Manchester, NH

Friday, 8/1 2:00pm: Framingham Library, 49 Lexington St, Framingham, MA

Sunday, 8/3 7:00pm: Walpole United Church, 30 Common St, Walpole, MA

Wednesday, 8/20 5:00pm: Chilmark Public Library, 522 South Rd, Chilmark, MA

Thursday 8/28 7:00pm: Rogers Free Library, 525 Hope St (rte 114), Bristol, RI

Contact Mass. Peace Action to arrange a presentation in your town.

Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States (Hardcover)

By Rebecca Gordon

$29.95

ISBN-13: 9780199336432
Availability: Available to Order

Published: Oxford University Press (UK), 5/2014

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