The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective / Edition 1

by Robert Gellately, Ben Kiernan

Overview

Focusing on the twentieth century, this collection of essays by leading international experts offers an up-to-date, comprehensive history and analysis of multiple cases of genocide and genocidal acts. The book contains studies of the Armenian genocide; the victims of Stalinist terror; the Holocaust; and Imperial Japan. Contributors explore colonialism and address the fate of the indigenous peoples in Africa, North America, and Australia. In addition, extensive coverage of the post-1945 period includes the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, Bali, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, East Timor, and Guatemala. Robert Gellately is Professor and Strassler Family Chair for the Study of Holocaust History at Clark University, where he teaches a variety of courses in modern German history, modern European history and the history of the Holocaust with a concentration on the study of Nazi Germany and the Gestapo. In Backing Hitler (Oxford, 2001), Gellately uses new evidence to demolish long-held beliefs about what ordinary Germans knew of the concentration camps. His internationally acclaimed book, The Gestapo and German Society (Oxford, 1990) challenges conventional concepts of the Gestapo and daily life in Nazi Germany. He has won numerous fellowships, and awards, most recently from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. Ben Kiernan is A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University and Convenor of the Yale East Timor Project. Kiernan is the author of The Pol Pot Regime (Yale, 1996), How Pol Pot Came to Power (Verso Books, 1985) and three other works and over a hundred scholarly articles on Southeast Asia and the history of genocide. Choice called him "the most knowledgeable observer of Cambodia anywhere in the Western world." Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge "indicted" and then "sentenced" him as an "arch war criminal." Kiernan is a member of the Editorial Boards of Human Rights Review, the Journal of Human Rights, and the Journal of Genocide Research. He is currently writing a global history of genocide since 1500.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521527507
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/07/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	408
Sales rank:	882,606
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan; Part I. Genocide and Modernity: 2. Twentieth century genocides: underlying ideological themes from Armenia to East Timor Ben Kiernan; 3. The modernity of genocides: war, race, and revolution in the twentieth century Eric D. Weitz; 4. Seeking the roots of modern genocide: on the macro- and micro-history of mass murder Omer Bartov; 5. Genocide and the body politic in the time of modernity Marie Fleming; Part II: Indigenous Peoples and Colonial Issues: 6. Indigenous peoples genocide: rhetoric of human rights Elazar Barkan; 7. Military culture and the production of 'final solutions' in the colonies: the example of Wilhelminian Germany Isabel V. Hull; 8. East Timor: counter-insurgency and genocide John G. Taylor; Part III. The Era of the Two World Wars: 9. Under cover of war: the Armenian genocide in the context of total war Jay Winter; 10. The mechanism of a mass crime: the 'great terror' in the Soviet Union, 1937–1938 Nicolas Werth; 11. The third reich, the Holocaust and visions of serial genocide Robert Gellately; 12. Reflections on modern Japanese history in the context of the concept of 'genocide' Gavan McCormack; Part IV. Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1945: 13. 'When the world turned to chaos': 1965 and its aftermath in Bali, Indonesia Leslie Dwyer and Degung Santikarma; 14. Genocide in Cambodia and Ethiopia Edward Kissi; 15. Modern genocide in Rwanda: ideology, revolution, war, and mass murder in an African state Robert Melson; 16. History, motive, law, intent: combining historical and legal methods in understanding Guatemala's 1981–1983 genocide Greg Grandin; 17. Analysis of a mass crime: ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, 1991–1999 Jacques Semelin; Part V. Conclusions: 18. The specter of genocide Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan.

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a starting point for those who wish to learn more about the complexities of the genocide debate." -Military Review

"...extraordinarily informative...Recommended as a companion to classic titles like Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem." -Publishers Weekly

"Kiernan and Gellately have assembled a stellar group of academics to produce a first-rate book usefully balanced between theory and case studies and focusing on the 55 years since the UN genocide convention was adopted.... Highly recommended." -Choice

"This volume will be invaluable for scholars of all disciplines who seek to gain a greater comprehension of what, on the surface, seems incomprehensible." An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies Glenn Sharfman, Hiram College

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly

Given the quality of such books as Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, an anthology on the subject must be comprehensive and distinguished to be recommended. While Power's book concerns the problem of formulating a policy response to this horrific crime, this edited volume provides a solid historical context. With these selections, Gellately (Strassler Family Chair for the Study of Holocaust History, Clark Univ.) and Kiernan (Whitney Griswold Professor of History & director, Genocide Studies Program, Yale Univ.) help us to understand better the "new synthesis...of warfare, race, and revolution," starting in World War I with the Turkish genocide of Armenians. Even this assertion is not without controversy. For example, Elizar Barkan maintains that "inordinately diverse" colonial experiences make it impossible to dismiss colonialism as inherently genocidal and takes to task the use of genocide to describe the experience of indigenous North American peoples. Otherwise, most of the chapters reflect a set of recurring variables, such as a level of "mass participation" (Rwanda), idealization of a "peasant culture" (Germany), and the demands of a "total war"( Armenia). In addition, the contributors examine less well known episodes of mass killing, such as the crimes of imperial Japan and those of the Guatemalan armed forces during the early 1980s. A concluding chapter highlights the importance of historical research in clarifying our understanding of genocide. Recommended for larger public and all academic libraries.-Zachary T. Irwin, Sch. of Humanities & Social Science, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal