ABSTRACT
Nothing is more apparent to the most casual observer of the North American scene than the excessive amount of violence in the United States and its comparative absence in Canada. Statistics on crime rates in various cities consistently indicate that Canada experiences about one-third of the violent acts committed in the United States. The early dispute between Britain and the American colonies was critical to the development of American attitudes toward violence. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Canada had almost as violent a past as the United States. Violence in American literature continued unabated after the Civil War. The amount of violence in American literature remained high after World War I, despite the diminishing popularity of frontier fighting as a subject. Black-white racial violence in American literature is primarily a twentieth-century phenomenon. Literary themes that encompass violence cover a wide spectrum.
