The Hood by Alison Kinney

The Hood by Alison Kinney ISBN-13: 9781501307409 Paperback: 176 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic Released: Jan. 28, 2016

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
We all wear hoods. Alison Kinney explores the symbolic vibrancy of this everyday garment and political semaphore, which often protects the powerful at the expense of the powerless-with deadly results. Kinney considers medieval clerics and the Klan, anti-hoodie campaigns and the Hooded Man of Abu Ghraib, the Inquisition and the murder of Trayvon Martin, uncovering both the hooded perpetrators of violence and the hooded victims in their sights.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.


My Review:
The Hood is a social history about the way we use hoods and what they have come to stand for. It's about the role hoods have played in justice and injustice and how hoods are used to define and control people.

When looking at historical uses of hoods, it was usually to point out that they didn't actually use hoods or they didn't use the hoods they're depicted as wearing in later paintings or movies. The author looked at how hoods are used to dehumanize the victims in executions, terrorism, torture, and protests. She also examined how hoods are blamed for biased behavior toward blacks or peaceful protesters.

I'd recommend this book to those interested in a closer look at relatively recent instances (Spanish Inquisition, KKK, Abu Ghraib, etc.) of injustice that involved hoods.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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