Larry Ray is an academic author who writes books on sociology, culture, politics and related topics. He is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, England. He was born in Southampton and went to Lancaster and Sussex universities. He returned to Lancaster as a lecturer in sociology in 1976 and remained there until 1998 when he moved to Kent. His career has taken him to Kenya (where in 1982 he witnessed and then wrote about an attempted military coup), India, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and central and Eastern Europe. Several of his books deal with the crisis and collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the most recent being 'Social Theory and Postcommunism' written with William Outhwaite. He has recently been working on the revival of Yiddish culture and klezmer music in Europe and its role in collective memory. He's also (re)learning to play the violin. Favorite klezmer and neoklezmer performers include Wolf Krakowski, Brave Old World, the Klezmatics, Oy Division, Yale Strom and Mikvah. His most recent book is 'Violence and Society' (2011) published by Sage - this is an interdisciplinary analysis of violence and draws on evidence from sociology, criminology, primate studies and archaeology to shed light on arguments the origins and nature of violence. He is currently working on photographic representations of violence and how to evoke compassionate responses.