Background
Clarke, James Weston was born on February 16, 1937 in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Alonzo Peterson and Beatrice (Weston) Clarke.
( In 1978 convicted murderer Gary Tison escaped from an A...)
In 1978 convicted murderer Gary Tison escaped from an Arizona prison with the help of his three sons. Over the following two weeks, Tison and his gang roamed the Southwest, murdering six people before confronting police in a bloody shootout near the Mexican border. Next to the Gunfight at the OK Corral, this is the most sensational crime story in Arizona history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816519676/?tag=2022091-20
( From Richard Lawrence, who attempted to shoot President...)
From Richard Lawrence, who attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson in 1835, to the assailants of contemporary American political leaders, this book probes the lives of sixteen individuals who tried to kill or did kill our presidents and other prominent politicians. Lawrence, who misfired two pistols one after the other at a frail and elderly Jackson, thought himself to be King Richard III of England. He was so obviously insane that he was acquitted of his crime, to spend the rest of his life in a mental institution. What of the other assassins? asks James W. Clarke. Was John Wilkes Booth nothing other than a crazy actor, motivated by an insanely jealous desire for fame and recognition? Were the anarchist beliefs of McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, the delusions of a madman? Can Sirhan Sirhan's Arab nationalism be dismissed as an expression of oedipal conflict? In studies of the sixteen assassins and would-be assassins, Professor Clarke introduces evidence of real differences among men and women who until now have been lumped together under the rubric of what the author calls a pathological theory of assassination. With assassination attempts increasing dramatically in number, this book clarifies our thinking about an important subject: social commentators--historians, psychiatrists, and journalists--have been mistaken in categorizing all the attackers as delusional, deranged, or schizophrenic. It is comforting to ignore the political experience of the violent people considered in this book and to apply the label of severe mental illness to anyone seeking to harm an important political leader. Professor Clarke deprives us of that comfort by considering the actions of his subjects in their cultural, political, and social contexts and by treating not only their subjective realities but the objective historical circumstances they faced. He draws on a wide range of primary sources to convey a mood in each case that contributes to an understanding of the attacker and the times in which he lived. Emphasizing the differences among his subjects, he classifies them into four basic psychological types that summarize patterns in their behavior and make important distinctions among their emotional and cognitive characteristics. Professor Clarke ends his book with a series of searching questions about the effects of media coverage of assassination attempts and about our methods of protecting the safety of our political leaders. He concludes that the social costs of domestic surveillance would outweigh its dubious benefits but that confiscation of handguns is imperative to reduce the increasing occurrence of assassinations.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691022216/?tag=2022091-20
( Violence has marked relations between blacks and whites...)
Violence has marked relations between blacks and whites in America for nearly four hundred years. In The Lineaments of Wrath, James W. Clarke draws upon behavioral science theory and primary historical evidence to examine and explain its causes and enduring consequences. Beginning with slavery and concluding with the present, Clarke describes how the combined effects of state-sanctioned mob violence and the discriminatory administration of “race-blind” criminal and contract labor laws terrorized and immobilized the black population in the post-emancipation South. In this fashion an agricultural system, based on debt peonage and convict labor, quickly replaced slavery and remained the back-bone of the region’s economy well into the twentieth century. Quoting the actual words of victims and witnesses—from former slaves to “gangsta” rappers—Clarke documents the erosion of black confidence in American criminal justice. In so doing, he also traces the evolution, across many generations, of a black subculture of violence, in which disputes are settled personally, and without recourse to the legal system. That subculture, the author concludes, accounts for historically high rates of black-on-black violence which now threatens to destroy the black inner city from within. The Lineaments of Wrath puts America’s race issues into a completely original historical perspective. Those in the fields of political science, sociology, history, psychology, public policy, race relations, and law will find Clarke’s work of profound importance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765808730/?tag=2022091-20
( Since 1789, when George Washington became the first pre...)
Since 1789, when George Washington became the first president of the United States, forty-three men have held the nation’s highest office. Four were killed by assassins,and serious attempts were made on the lives of eight others.Add to that list Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X,and it is reasonable to conclude that political prominence in the U.S. entails grave risks. In Defining Danger, James W. Clarke explores the cultural and psychological linkages that define assassinations and a new era of domestic terrorism in America. Clarke notes an upsurge in political violence beginning with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Since then, there have been ten assassination attempts on nationally prominent political leaders. That is two more than the eight recorded in the previous 174 years of the nation’s presidential history. New elements of domestic terror in American life were introduced in the 1990s by Timothy McVeigh, the “Oklahoma City Bomber,” Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” and Eric Rudolph, the abortion clinic bomber. These men were politically motivated; their crimes were unprecedented. These events and the perpetrators behind them are among the subjects of this book. Defining Danger conveys two central themes. The first is that individual acts of violence directed toward America’s democratically elected leaders represent a defining element of American politics. The second addresses how danger is defined, through an analysis of the motives and characteristics of twenty-one perpetrators responsible for these acts of political violence where shots were fired, or bombs detonated, and in most instances, victims died. The book is written in an accessible and engaging style that will appeal to the informed general reader, as well as to professionals in a variety of fields—especially in the wake of recent events and the specter of future violence that, sadly, haunts us all.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412845904/?tag=2022091-20
writer emeritus political science professor
Clarke, James Weston was born on February 16, 1937 in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Alonzo Peterson and Beatrice (Weston) Clarke.
Bachelor, Washington and Jefferson College, 1962. Master of Arts, Pennsylvania State University, 1964. Doctor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, 1968.
Assistant professor Florida State University, 1967-1971. Associate professor University Arizona, Tucson, 1971-1976, professor political science, since 1976, chairman department, 1973-1978, university distinguished professor, 2000.
( From Richard Lawrence, who attempted to shoot President...)
( Since 1789, when George Washington became the first pre...)
( In 1978 convicted murderer Gary Tison escaped from an A...)
( Violence has marked relations between blacks and whites...)
Served with United States Marine Corps, 1955-1958. Member American Political Science Association (Outstanding Teaching in Political Science 2000).
Married Jeanne Nienaber. Children— Julianne, Michael.