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Harold Schechter
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Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment Hardcover – March 1, 2005

by Harold Schechter (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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Does violence in movies, on television and in comic strips and cartoons rot our children's brains and make zombies-or worse, criminals-of adults at the fringes? In this cogent, well-researched book, American pop-culture expert Harold Schechter argues that exactly the opposite is true: a basic human need is given an outlet through violent images in popular media.

Moving from an exploration of early broadsheet engravings showing torture and the atrocities of war, to the depictions of crime in "penny dreadfuls," to scenes of violence in today's movies and video games, Schechter not only traces the history of disturbing images but details the outrage that has inevitably accompanied them. By the twentieth century, the culture vultures were out in full force, demonizing comic books and setting up a pattern of equating testosterone-fueled entertainment with aggression. According to Schechter, nothing could be further from the truth. He also blasts those who bemoan the alleged increased violence in media today, and who conveniently scapegoat popular entertainment for a variety of cultural ills, including increased crime and real-life violence. Though American pop culture is far more technologically sophisticated today, Schechter shows that it is far less brutal than the entertainments of previous generations.

Savage Pastimes is a rich, eye-opening brief history that will make you rethink your assumptions about what we watch and how it affects us all.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    St. Martin's Press
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0312282761
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312282769
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"We belong to an innately violent species," argues Schechter. Violent entertainment is popular, he says, because it's natural to indulge in "taboo fantasies" and "escape into realms of forbidden experience." Indeed, from the crucifixions of the Romans to the guillotines of the French Revolution, from wax museums' torture dioramas to P.T. Barnum's sideshows, people have flocked to spectacles of gore and suffering. Motion pictures became popular, Schechter explains, partly by delivering realistic violence (the first special effect in cinema history was the simulated beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots in an 1895 feature). Crime fiction, from the penny dreadfuls to today's bestsellers, has always sold big, but even literary classics, like Poe's stories, continue to enthrall partly because they speak to the violent imagination. As far as Schechter, a Queens College literature professor and author of several true crime books on serial killers, is concerned, today's entertainment is far less violent than yesteryear's; special effects may make films and video games more graphic, but everything's simulated. While Schechter makes an engaging argument for the bloodthirsty tastes of our ancestors, he rather quickly dismisses contemporary sociological research on the effects of media violence on youth. This entertaining, provocative, not entirely convincing work will be a treat for literate readers who can't register for the professor's classes. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Ace serial-killer biographer Schechter doesn't buy the yap about movie/TV/video-game violence being worse than all previous gruesome entertainment and inspiring worse behavior. Violent crime rates are declining even if video games are getting gorier. Moreover, the history of violent entertainment suggests that humanity is kinder, gentler, and more squeamish than ever. As recently as the famously wholesome 1950s, shoot-'em-up westerns dominated TV, producing more corpses per half-hour during after-school and prime-time viewing hours than ever since: where are the westerns now? Farther back and for centuries, thousands mobbed public executions now considered appallingly sadistic, buying the likes of miniature guillotines (to decapitate birds and mice for children's amusement) as souvenirs. Only late in the nineteenth century did violent amusement become strictly representational, and the epicenter of theatrical gore, Paris' Theatre du Grand Guignol, closed in the 1960s. Nowadays action movies may be louder than ever, but onscreen mayhem is minimal. Of course, this history and its copious pictorial record make for great browsing as well as straight reading--but no moral trepidation allowed! Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press; First Edition (March 1, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312282761
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312282769
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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Harold Schechter

Harold Schechter

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Harold Schechter is an American true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He attended the State University of New York in Buffalo where his PhD director was Leslie Fiedler. He is professor of American literature and popular culture at Queens College of the City University of New York.Schechter is married to poet Kimiko Hahn. He has two daughters from a previous marriage: the writer Lauren Oliver and professor of philosophy Elizabeth Schechter. His newest book, The Mad Sculptor, (about a sensational triple murder at Beekman Place in New York City in 1937) will be published in February 2014.

Praise for THE MAD SCULPTOR:

"Ambitious, bold, and evocative, Schechter's storytelling grabs the reader in a similar manner to Capote's searing In Cold Blood." --Publishers Weekly

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-544-11431-9

"Perfect for readers who enjoy the stories of the sensationalistic press of the 1930s and its crass exploitation of the details of horrific murders." - Kirkus

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/harold-schechter/the-mad-sculptor/

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Johnny Bluerose
5.0 out of 5 stars It must buy
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2021
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As always love this man's books everything he's written on and I enjoy everything he's written and I will continue to buy everything that he does right in the future
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oldsquid
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely enlightening!
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2018
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A must read for those that think we have gone to Hell in a handbasket.
Reviews history back to the Romans about the love of violence as entertainment for regular people.
We now have vivid, violent, blood spattered entertainment - in games, on screen. Our fore-fathers and mothers had actual people this was done to.
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Marjee
5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun- but not on a full stomach
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2005
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Despite my heavy reading load, I couldn't put this book down. It was a great trip down the sick and twisted history of our entertainment desires. The author does a good job of telling the story of how children's entertainment (and entertainment in general) of become more humane, not less. The spectre of video games like Grand Theft Auto cloud our collective memories about the nature of childhood entertainment spanning many generations past. Your enjoyment of this book will serve as evidence for the author's argument.
3 people found this helpful
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Thomas Fortenberry
4.0 out of 5 stars Not so Savage Savagery
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2009
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So, it turns out much to everyone's surprise that our mediatainment industries are not churning out quite so much despicable junk to poison the minds of our children. Seems that violence has always permeated our entertainment, and at times in the past the amount of killings, etc., actually superceded today's low standards.

So is it evil or does it actually help our kids by letting them dispel fears and anger via fantasy and fun? Read Schechter's intelligent study and decide for yourself.
2 people found this helpful
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Great Product
5.0 out of 5 stars Savage Pastimes
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2005
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Shocking. Should be followed by: "Demonic Males---Apes and the Origins of Human Violence" by Wrangham and Peterson; "The Murderer Next Door---Why We Kill" by David Buss; "Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers" by Dabbs and "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom. Anyone reading all those books will be left with no doubt that we evolved from apes.
7 people found this helpful
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Dan
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2015
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great book for anyone who thinks that our culture is more violent than past. easy read.
One person found this helpful
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Newton Ooi
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but insufficient
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2005
The purpose of this book is to provide a history of violent entertainment. A lot of empirical studies in this field have been generated out of the social sciences in Western society over the last century or so. These texts tend to be more appropriate for college classes or scientific studies, but not for light reading. Not so here; the length and style of the book lends itself to an easy read on a lazy afternoon, which is nice. The text is simple to read, and there are enough references on any page to provide depth and validity.

From my reading, the title is a misnomer as the book focuses more on the portrayal of violence in entertainment than violent entertainment itself. For example, the book spends a lot of pages reprinting and commenting on passages from texts by Shakespeare, Mickey Spillane, the Grimm brothers, and others that graphically describe violence such as killing, raping, fighting, and butchery. On the other hand, there is very little history on boxing, wrestling, gladiatorial combat, martial arts, and other forms of violent entertainment known to history. One glaring omission is the view of war and how it has changed with time. In the first battle of Bull Run in the US Civil War, civilians went to the battlefield with picnic bags beforehand to get good seats for watching the mayhem. Of course once the artillery started firing and the battle became a route, the fans ran off. But the fact that they came to watch instead of hiding in their houses tells something about their views on violence. For these omissions, I dock one star.

The book is formatted into eight chapters that chronologically describe the history of violent entertainment within Western society (Anglo-Saxon and now American) over the last 500 years or so. This is the quite limited. There is barely a mention of violence in entertainment within Eastern European, Hispanic, Asian, African, or even Native American cultures. To be specific, this book looks at violent entertainment within the context of Protestant society; Germany after Luther, England after Thomas More, and America. As such, the conclusions drawn from the text must be suspect for the limited scope of its treatment. For this I dock another star.

With respect to conclusions, this book makes two, though in very subtle ways. First, the portrayal of violence in entertainment does not lead to violence in real life. Second, the portrayal of violence in entertainment might even be a pressure valve to release stress that in turn reduces the frequency and/or severity of violence in real life. These conclusions, which might be true, are not well argued for by this book. With regard to conclusion number one, the author describes trends in the display of violence in entertainment and how that correlates to rates of crime. For example, crime rates have steadily gone down in the US over the last three decades even though video games, TV, and movies that portray violence have become more available to children. I think the drop in crime rate is due more to an aging of the population, and a rise in the use and efficacy of surveillance technology, than to any changes in our entertainment. Also, Americans have been getting fatter over the last three decades. Not to be demeaning, but overweight people are less likely to get into street rumbles or bar fights than physically fit people, solely because they are less physically able to. With regard to conclusion number two, I think the author should spend more time around teenagers. I have known several teenagers who after seeing an episode of "Jackass" were inspired to recreate some of these pranks in real life, often to the detriment of their community. For these huge leaps to conclusions, I dock another star.

In all, the book is easy to read, though the depth of coverage and insight does not inspire much. I give it two out of five stars.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Demelza
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking and fun.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2010
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In this short and readable book Harold Schechter sets out his case in favour of violent entertainment. In eight chapters he details both violent entertainments - the book covers public executions, miracle plays, dime novels, penny dreadfuls, newspapers, film, radio, T.V., horror comics and video games - and the moral reform movements that have campaigned against them. His arguments are well researched, well thought out and persuasive. He believes that rather than priming us to be desensitised, gleefully callous, killers it safely vents our darker energies.

There are many gruesome but illuminating illustrations and it is a coherent in-depth study of popular culture - esp. in the ways it appeals to young men - through the ages.
3 people found this helpful
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