text: Bailie draws on Rene Girard's theory of foundational violence as the generative cultural force, and explores its modern effects on a culture no longer enthralled by ritual or sacralized violence.  I found especially compelling the newspaper accounts of violent acts which have taken place within my own memory.  Bailie uses these along with historical accounts of scapegoating to illustrate his theory, producing a hard-hitting indictment of all forms of violence, whether isolated actions or legalized responses to a violent act.  Increasingly, I find it difficult to distinguish between an act of violence and an act of retributive justice.  I have not read a newspaper account of a violent encounter the same way since reading Violence Unveiled, nor do I react to photojournalism with my previous detachment.  The impact stays with me, despite the fact that I read the work initially two years ago when I borrowed it from a friend.  I now have my own copy, heavily underlined and notated in the margins with thoughts spawned by Bailie's excellent analyses.  Provocative and insightful
  