Product Description

Despite numerous highly publicized incidents and widespread calls for reform, hazing continues to plague many of the nation's institutions. In this volume, noted hazing researcher Hank Nuwer presents 15 classic or never-before-published essays that can help all of us, parent and professional alike, better understand the culture of hazing. The collection, which includes contributions from such experts as Michael Gordon, Walter Kimbrough, Stephen Sweet, and Lionel Tiger, looks at hazing behavior in fraternal organizations (including sororities and traditionally black fraternities), high school, the military, and sports. There are also chapters on hazing and the law, hazing injuries, and hazing and gender. Lastly, the book lays out steps for transforming a culture of hazing and offers suggestions for further reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #930502 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 344 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Forced drinking, long periods of sleep and hygiene deprivation, public humiliation (often involving nudity or vomiting), enforced servitude, verbal abuse, sexual assault, tortuous physical abuse: although this sounds like a litany of abuses in a book about the treatment of political prisoners or activities of religious cults dominated by sociopaths, these behaviors constitute the time-honored customs of some sports teams, military units, and Greek fraternities and sororities. Every so often public awareness is jolted by stories of ugly and sometimes deadly hazing rituals. New policies are made, public apologies are sometimes offered and life goes on as usual until the next disaster strikes in the form of the death of a student from severe alcohol poisoning or perhaps hypothermia. Nuwer, a hazing researcher and journalism professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, brings together an impressive array of experts from student affairs, professional sports, cultural studies, psychology, medicine and law to shed light on the seemingly ineradicable culture of hazing. Some of the chapters, including an important one on ritual violence in black fraternities, explore the problem's anthropological and historical roots. Several examine the psychological and addictive effects of modern initiation rites. Others highlight case studies and interviews with survivors and document institutional coverups and denials. Most important, this thorough and impressive, if occasionally redundant, collection hopes to mobilize public opinion to enact reforms aimed at forever eliminating the destructive, alcohol-saturated culture of hazing and its "wrongs of passage."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"... not only timely but informative and provides a comprehensive review of the many standard issues surrounding hazing. Highly recommended." -- Library Journal

About the Author

Hank Nuwer is Assistant Professor of Journalism at Franklin College and Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Indiana University--Purdue University Indianapolis. His books include Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking (IUP, 1999) and High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs. He lives in Indianapolis.

Customer Reviews

Decent Read
Mr. Nuewer's book is extremely informative. I was looking for a book that had some examples and stories of hazing and their outcomes to see what the college life and fraternity life was really like and was caught a bit offguard to find that it was more a documentary novel about a few incidents and the legal ramifications thereof. He does a lot of legal discussions. It's not a terrible book by any means, but it could use some more examples and descriptions. I would recommend this if you are really interested in the legal ramifications of hazing. It's also not fraternity oriented - mainly sports oriented to my recollection.