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A review by boritabletennis
In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action by Vicky Osterweil
5.0
For such a short book, it has a wealth of historical details that I had never heard about before in my life. For example, the decades between the Civil War and WWI were by and large empty stretches of time. Unsurprisingly, a lot happened in these years. That's just one example. If you want a historically grounded study of the role of looting and the riot in the context of struggles against white supremacy and economic exploitation in the United States, this is a fantastic place to start. I say the United States because the book is focused there, but the contents are probably relevant wherever capitalism's racist settler colonial nation-states are found.
Given that this includes pretty much all of the states between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, plus South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and who knows how many more, you might want to pick this one up. Vicky centers the Black liberation movement in the US throughout the book, but the various slaver colonies who thrived on the Transatlantic Slave Trade were not hermetically sealed, so I suspect that anyone looking at struggles against other slaver states will find this book particularly interesting.
And last but not least, the bibliography looks yummy as hell!
Given that this includes pretty much all of the states between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, plus South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and who knows how many more, you might want to pick this one up. Vicky centers the Black liberation movement in the US throughout the book, but the various slaver colonies who thrived on the Transatlantic Slave Trade were not hermetically sealed, so I suspect that anyone looking at struggles against other slaver states will find this book particularly interesting.
And last but not least, the bibliography looks yummy as hell!