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Experts: Violent years, seasons come in waves

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As some believe Lenin, the Russian revolutionary, said, "There are decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen."

Many of the incidents we are seeing in the United States and overseas are a reaction to domestic or world events, said Patrick Manning, president of the American Historical Association and director of the Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis at the University of Pittsburgh. And while it cannot be tabulated, it is highly likely that incidents in one country are affecting another, Manning said.

"This is retaliatory violence that we're seeing now," Manning said, bringing up as an example the Reconstruction period in the 19th century, post slavery.

"That's the time when the Ku Klux Klan rose up in a fashion, often violently, to repress those who were following their newfound rights," Manning said. "You can sort of think of the Civil Rights Movement, a social movement where people were asserting social rights, and there was retaliation against that."

Even the current political climate and the presidential race can be considered a reaction to the Obama presidency, Manning said.

Read entire article at USA Today