How do we know when a war ends? For many, the resolution of a conflict comes not with the last traces of smoke left on the battlefield, but with the formal ceremonies of surrender: possession and repossession, the signing of treaties, and the pomp and circumstance that mark them. Historically, most conflicts have ended with such rituals. But, as Robin Wagner-Pacifici reveals in The Art of Surrender, they should not be seen as merely a matter of giving up. They also offer ways of holding back and signal early fault lines that give rise to later undoings and conflicts.
The Art of...

On March 16, 1978, the former prime minister of Italy, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped by the Red Brigades, and what followed the fifty-five days of captivity that resulted in Moro's murder constitutes one of the most striking social dramas of the twentieth century. In this compelling study of terrorism, Robin Wagner-Pacifici employs methods from sociology, symbolic anthropology, and literary criticism to decode the many social "texts" that shaped the event: political speeches, newspaper reports, television and radio news, editorials, photographs, Moro's letters, Red Brigade communiques, and appeals...

This book combines original theoretical analysis with real life case studies to examine the nature of the standoff. The author explores seven actual standoffs between anti-state groups and organizations of law enforcement (six from the United Staes and one from Peru), and the archetypal patterns of human action and cognition that move us into and out of these highly charged situations. Evoking original ideas about time, space and appropriate or anticipated action, she develops a theory of the fundamental existential indeterminacy of social life and the role improvisation can play in...

This book combines original theoretical analysis with real life case studies to examine the nature of the standoff. The author explores seven actual standoffs between anti-state groups and organizations of law enforcement (six from the United Staes and one from Peru), and the archetypal patterns of human action and cognition that move us into and out of these highly charged situations. Evoking original ideas about time, space and appropriate or anticipated action, she develops a theory of the fundamental existential indeterminacy of social life and the role improvisation can play in...

We live in a world of breaking news, where at almost any moment our everyday routine can be interrupted by a faraway event. Events are central to the way that individuals and societies experience life. Even life's inevitable moments--birth, death, love, and war--are almost always a surprise. Inspired by the cataclysmic events of September 11, Robin Wagner-Pacifici presents here a tour de force, an analysis of how events erupt and take off from the ground of ongoing, everyday life, and how they then move across time and landscape.

What Is an Event? ranges across several...