After tragedy strikes : why claims of trauma and loss promote public outrage and encourage political polarization / Thomas D. Beamish.
"While trauma and loss can occur anywhere, most suffering is experienced as personal tragedy. Yet some tragedies transcend everyday life's sad yet inevitable traumas to become notorious public events: de facto 'public' tragedies. In these crises, suffering is made publicly visibl...
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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via De Gruyter) |
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| Main Author: | |
| Other title: | Why claims of trauma and loss promote public outrage and encourage political polarization |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oakland, California :
University of California Press,
[2024]
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "While trauma and loss can occur anywhere, most suffering is experienced as personal tragedy. Yet some tragedies transcend everyday life's sad yet inevitable traumas to become notorious public events: de facto 'public' tragedies. In these crises, suffering is made publicly visible and lamentable. Such tragedies are defined by public accusations, social blame, outpourings of grief and anger, spontaneous memorialization, and collective action. These, in turn, generate a comparable set of political reactions, including denial, denunciation, counterclaims, blame avoidance, and a competition to control memories of the event. While disasters and crises are no more or less common today than in the past, public tragedies now seem ubiquitous. After Tragedy Strikes argues that they are now epochal--public tragedies have become the day's definitive social and political events. Thomas D. Beamish deftly explores this phenomenon by developing the historical context within which these events occur and the role that political elites, the media, and an emergent ideology of victimhood have played in cultivating their ascendence"-- |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xiii, 257 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780520401082 0520401085 |
| Source of Description, Etc. Note: | Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 11, 2024). |