Book Review: In Defense of Looting

Image: the cover of the book has an off-white background with an image of a large crowbar in the center. Beneath the curve of the crowbar is the title of the book. To the left and lowercase letters is the byline, "a riotous history of uncivil action."  Across the bottom near the lower tip of the crowbar is the author's name in bold letters.

I've been dealing with some issues since losing internet, changing cellphone carriers who all suck, and blah blah blah so I'm writing on my phone with hands full of tremor and coordination issues and thus not doing a great job with reviews. 

The shorter version (than Vicky Osterweil's In Defense of Looting deserves) of this is that I liked Osterweil's overall thesis, but I think the title may be more accurate as, "in defense of rioting" or "in defense of property destruction." The looting history including people looting themselves from situations of slavery and imprisonment was an interesting way of putting things. I think the books flaw is that it romanticizes certain things a bit too much and flattens out situations of civil unrest and illegalism as being unified and automatically liberatory when the reality is, it's complicated, messy, and it depends on if the tactics were advantageous for various situations. 

With how much people all over the political spectrum rewrite history and pretend all movements have been won by unicorns, puppies, kittens, hugging cops, and voting, maybe a little romanticism for the violent nature of all effective revolution balances it out.