The book also examines the practical prospects for greater civility. But it rejects simple-minded pacifism, stressing instead that the maxim that "those who live by the sword perish by the sword" is not always accurate, and that there are times when the defenders of civility who refuse to take up the sword simply perish on the cross. John Keane is the author of "Tom Paine: A Political Life" and "The Media and Democracy".