No duty to retreat violence and values in American history and society - Brown, Richard Maxwell (Oxford University Press, 1991)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-251) and index
No duty to retreat in law and the American mind -- The gunfighter : the reality behind the myth -- California conflict and the American dream -- The persistence of no duty to retreat : crime, law, and society in America from the 1850s to the present -- Conclusion: No duty to retreat in retrospect and prospect
No Duty to Retreat takes as its starting-point the increased popularity in American society of the old English common-law concept that a person under physical attack has the right to stand his ground, defend himself, and even kill his assailant in self-defence in certain circumstances. This doctrine came to public awareness recently when Berhard Goetz took the law into his own hands when assaulted by four youths in a New York City subway train. There is a chapter on the American as gunfighter, another on a famous vigilante case in California in the 1870s, when farmers retaliated against the Southern Pacific Railroad trying to move them off their lands , and a long chapter discussing 'crime, law, and society in America since 1930', in which Brown shows that the crime surge since the 1950s has occurred with the emergence of the Post-Industrial Society, which has left many people alienated and looking for quick solutions
Keywords: Violence / États-Unis / Histoire; Valeurs (Philosophie) / États-Unis / Histoire; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Violence in Society; Geweld; Zelfverdediging; Values; Violence; Geschichte; Gewalt; Violence -- United States -- History; Values -- United States -- History; Gewalttätigkeit; Wertordnung; USA