Thugs. Goons. Stormtroopers. Bandits. Gangsters. Rioters. King Lear's unruly knights. History is full of these men. But the same men are also police officers, militiamen, guild members, and soldiers. They can also do any of these things part-time. Why and how do men participate in violent groups? What happens when states cooperate with these groups, suppress them, or attempt to use them? And why are these groups so startlingly like one another, within many different polities and during many different times? This course will analyze political interactions in terms of contested negotiations around male interpersonal violence. It will explore these negotiations through groups of what Charles Tilly called "violence specialists:" soldiers, the police, thugs, criminals, etc. In many times and places, these men were and are a "labor pool" of violence who offer security and muscle; and who also turn to criminal activity. The relationships of violence specialists to states can be cooperative or ambivalent as well as antagonistic - or networks of these men can make up the state itself. The political challenge of violent men who are embedded in the rest of society - at once of it and outsiders to it - will always be with us. It is important for issues like post-Soviet states, the spike in violence during the Covid plague and its equally sudden decline, the militarization of police, and the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's Syria. An exploration of this challenge includes an excerpt from Stanford's own history.
3-5 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit · GER: WAY-EDP
Thugs. Goons. Stormtroopers. Bandits. Gangsters. Rioters. King Lear's unruly knights. History is full of these men. But the same men are also police officers, militiamen, guild members, and soldiers. They can also do any of these things part-time. Why and how do men participate in violent groups? What happens when states cooperate with these groups, suppress them, or attempt to use them? And why are these groups so startlingly like one another, within many different polities and during many different times? This course will analyze political interactions in terms of contested negotiations around male interpersonal violence. It will explore these negotiations through groups of what Charles Tilly called "violence specialists:" soldiers, the police, thugs, criminals, etc. In many times and places, these men were and are a "labor pool" of violence who offer security and muscle; and who also turn to criminal activity. The relationships of violence specialists to states can be cooperative or ambivalent as well as antagonistic - or networks of these men can make up the state itself. The political challenge of violent men who are embedded in the rest of society - at once of it and outsiders to it - will always be with us. It is important for issues like post-Soviet states, the spike in violence during the Covid plague and its equally sudden decline, the militarization of police, and the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's Syria. An exploration of this challenge includes an excerpt from Stanford's own history.
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.