FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALBANY, N.Y., August 25, 2025 — The State University of New York Press announced today that it will publish School Shootings in American Culture: On Power, Propaganda, and Panic in Targeted Mass Attacks by Dr. Lisa Ross on November 1, 2025.
School Shootings in American Culture is a compelling investigation into the subtle drivers behind school shootings as a cultural trend — certain to become essential reading for concerned parents, educators and policymakers.
The tragedies at Uvalde, Texas, and Parkland, Florida, have shown that our national strategy to end school shootings is failing. In the book, Ross exposes the design flaws in our most celebrated prevention methods, as well as the unstated and at times unwarranted assumptions on which they are based.
First, she examines America’s makeshift approach to combating school shootings since Columbine — active shooter response training, threat assessment teams and target hardening, including an in-depth look at the school resource officer’s role. Next, through the interdisciplinary themes of power, propaganda and panic, the author explores society’s psychological processes for controlling social threats.
What emerges is an almost irreconcilable conflict between post-Columbine active shooter policy and traditional police culture that state and federal investigations into law enforcement’s response at Uvalde have made plain. Readers who want to break mass murder’s grip on society will find the book invaluable.
"School Shootings in American Culture is a highly readable, carefully documented study of the subject matter, full of original insights. I found it difficult to put down,” said Brad J. Bushman, Ohio State University professor and editor of American Psychological Association’s Psychology of Violence journal.
The 208-page book is available for pre-order in hardcover and ebook formats (ISBN 9798855804515, $120.00; 9798855804539, $35.95).
BISAC categories: Politics, Society & Current Affairs | Violence in Society | Criminology | Popular Culture
Lisa Ross, Ed.D., is a management consultant with 30 years of experience in helping organizations resolve entrenched systemic issues. She is passionate about exposing the root cause of cultural phenomena and the psychosocial impact of violence in schools.
Founded in 1966, SUNY Press is an internationally acclaimed publisher of distinguished research and works of general interest, offering an innovative range of print and electronic publications to fulfill the evolving needs of scholars, students, authors and readers.
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