The Bully Society

The author writes with clarity and compassion... she offers an opportunity for us to examine, discuss and consider the world we have created for our children. * Kirkus Reviews *
[C]arefully researched, well written, and compelling read...It offers important evidence that can offer deeper understandings of the issues influencing youth violence in American culture and valuable recommendations for future research and action to reduce these harmful factors in our schools and communities * Men and Masculinities *
The Bully Society is a remarkably accessible book and can be read both by students, teachers, and parents. It is an important tool to use when combating bullying in high schools. * Metapsychology *
Readers wanting an in-depth explanation of whats behind school bullying will get that and much more in The Bully Society. Professor Klein has rendered an exceedingly thorough analysis of the bullying and hate crimes and shootings that have shocked America in the last decade or so. In addition, Dr. Klein makes a compelling argument that the causes of bullying are rooted in the American culture itselfan obsession with masculinity and hyper-individualism that promotes competition over collaboration and denies young people the kinds of authentic bonding experiences that encourage the development of healthy self-esteem. * New York Journal of Books *
In this thorough examination of the connection between bullying and three decades of school shootings in America, Adelphi University professor Klein presents a compelling case that the strict gender rules by which American children and teenagers are unfairly forced to live are the driving factors in school violence. * Publishers Weekly *
Written for a diverse audience, this is an important read for higher education as a teaching tool, for training educators in today's schools, and for helping to appropriately respond to the phenomenon of bullying in today's schools. Destined to emerge as an important text. * CHOICE *
Exceptionally readable, abundant examples, and full of salient suggestions for social change; no future discussion of this topic can afford to ignore The Bully Society. -- James W. Messerschmidt, author of Hegemonic Masculinities and Camouflaged Politics
The Bully Society is riveting and powerfulJessie Klein uncovers the roots of depression, school shootings, and other despair in American schools and offers brilliant and doable solutions. This amazing and hopeful book is a clarion call to all concerned about children; parents, professionals, anyone working with youth should read it. Jessie Klein led the team that helped launch me from being homeless to Harvard University; and she got everyone from my class (from an at-risk public high school) into a 4-year collegemost with full scholarships. Surely her book can spearhead a movement for peaceful schools in America and her successes can be replicated. The Bully Society is poignant and timely at a moment when everyone should be listening. Frankly, we can't afford not to. The stories Klein tells are heartbreaking. She knows what it takes to create compassionate communities where students thriveand what must be done to dismantle the more common school bully cultures. A must read for everyone who wants to see American students move from a sea of fear, anxiety, and rage to flourish academically, socially, and psychologically. The Bully Society points the way for students (and schools) to develop their full potential. -- Liz Murray,author of Breaking Night: A Memoir of My Journey from Homeless to Harvard
Taking the horrific rampage school shootings as a starting point, Jessie Klein resists pop-psychology profiling, and instead lets the events ramify outwards, to a searing indictment of the cultures of cruelty, entitlement and indifference in which those acts take place. -- Michael Kimmel,author of Guyland
This powerful, necessary book shows how the epidemic cruelty of young people generates many of the social problems that are undermining American society. In pondering what it means to be a bully and to be the victim of a bully, Jessie Klein shows why our schools are failing us, explains crimes long viewed as inexplicable, and offers a stunning indictment of laissez-faire attitudes toward children. Her book illuminates a very dark problem, and proposes solutions that, if we are brave enough to adopt them, might be transformative not only in the lives of suffering individuals, but also in the health of the nation. I wish everyone around me had had this book to read when I was bullied as a child. -- Andrew Solomon,author of The Noonday Demon
A scholarly, insightful commentary on aggression and violence within peer groups....this title is highly recommended for professional shelves and teacher training courses. * VOYA *
Klein, a former school counselor who now teaches sociology and criminal justice, forms a coherent, heartbreaking narrative of how bullying works. * The Boston Globe *