From Publishers Weekly
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.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"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


Book Description
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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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, with a focus on the twentieth century. The book contains studies of the Armenian genocide, the victims of Stalinist terror, the Holocaust, and imperial Japan. Several authors explore colonialism and address the fate of the indigenous peoples in Africa, North America, and Australia. As well, there is extensive coverage of the post-1945 period, including the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, Bali, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, East Timor, and Guatemala. The book emphasizes the importance of comparative analysis and theoretical discussion, and it raises new questions about the difficult challenges for modernity constituted by genocide and other mass crimes.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

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.

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