Authors: Robert Gellately, Ben Kiernan (Editor), Gellately Robert
ISBN-13: 9780521527507, ISBN-10: 0521527503
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date Published: May 2003
Edition: 1st Edition
Offers an up-to-date, comprehensive history and analyses of multiple cases of genocide and genocidal acts.
While this is definitely a collection of distinguished scholars writing for other scholars, the editors, historians at Clark and Yale respectively, bring together a cogent group of perspectives on the history and causes of mass murder. The University of Minnesota's Eric Weitz makes a persuasive case that the peculiar 20th-century combination of mass society, technology and racist ideologies has made genocide so much easier than in previous centuries that it has become both more pervasive and more destructive, looking to those who engage in it as an easy way out. "Genocides of Indigenous People," by Claremont Graduate University's Elazar Barkan contains many insights on the question of inherited collective guilt, as well as good historical summaries. Of the less theoretical historical narratives, some cover well-trodden ground but with clarity and vigor, including studies of the Holocaust and Yugoslavia. Others present examples of genocide not commonly known, such as the Indonesian slaughter of the population of East Timor and the U.S.-backed government of Guatemala's war against its Mayan population. Particular distinction belongs to the summary of Rwanda, extraordinarily informative for its brevity. In both introduction and afterword, the editors emphasize the necessity of broad but informed definitions of genocide as essential in raising barriers against it. (June) Forecast: While annotations and bibliography serve to guide educated lay readers to more accessible sources, this is not the place for lay readers to begin inquiries, and the book's price definitely aims it toward libraries. Still, as a distillation of the most recent thinking, it can be recommended as a companion to classic titles like Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
List of Contributors | ||
Acknowledgments | ||
1 | The Study of Mass Murder and Genocide | 3 |
2 | Twentieth-Century Genocides: Underlying Ideological Themes from Armenia to East Timor | 29 |
3 | The Modernity of Genocides: War, Race, and Revolution in the Twentieth Century | 53 |
4 | Seeking the Roots of Modern Genocide: On the Macro- and Microhistory of Mass Murder | 75 |
5 | Genocide and the Body Politic in the Time of Modernity | 97 |
6 | Genocides of Indigenous Peoples: Rhetoric of Human Rights | 117 |
7 | Military Culture and the Production of "Final Solutions" in the Colonies: The Example of Wilhelminain Germany | 141 |
8 | "Encirclement and Annihilation": The Indonesian Occupation of East Timor | 163 |
9 | Under Cover of War: The Armenian Genocide in the Context of Total War | 189 |
10 | The Mechanism of a Mass Crime: The Great Terror in the Soviet Union, 1937-1938 | 215 |
11 | The Third Reich, the Holocaust, and Visions of Serial Genocide | 241 |
12 | Reflections on Modern Japanese History in the Context of the Concept of Genocide | 265 |
13 | "When the World Turned to Chaos": 1965 and Its Aftermath in Bali, Indonesia | 289 |
14 | Genocide in Cambodia and Ethiopia | 307 |
15 | Modern Genocide in Rwanda: Ideology, Revolution, War, and Mass Murder in an African State | 325 |
16 | History, Motive, Law, Intent: Combining Historical and Legal Methods in Understanding Guatemala's 1981-1983 Genocide | 339 |
17 | Analysis of a Mass Crime: Ethic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia, 1991-1999 | 353 |
18 | Investigating Genocide | 373 |
App | Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide | 381 |
Index | 385 |