Law, writes Robert Cover, "takes place on a battlefield of pain and death." The power of violence, Cover saw,is jurisgenerative. Violence, in other words, has the power to found law. In a fascinating new book, "The Headless Republic," Jesse Goldhammer explores the French tradition of thinking about sacrificial violence and its role in the foundation of political and legal authority. Goldhammer traces the idea of violence as a pregnant and generative political impulse from its roots in the French revolution through the works of the social and political theorists Joseph de Maistre, George Sorel, and Georges Bataille. This book is not only well written, it will make you think about the importance and danger of violence in our world.