The Specter of Genocide

by Edited by Robert Gellately , Ben Kiernan

• ISBN13: 9780521820639
• ISBN10: 0521820634
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Genocide, mass murder and human rights abuses are arguably the most perplexing and deeply troubling aspects of recent world history. This collection of essays by leading international experts offers an up-to-date, comprehensive history and analyses 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.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	ix
Acknowledgments	x
INTRODUCTION
1 The Study of Mass Murder and Genocide
Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan	3	(26)
PART I: GENOCIDE AND MODERNITY
2 Twentieth-Century Genocides: Underlying Ideological Themes from Armenia to East Timor
Ben Kiernan	29	(24)
3 The Modernity of Genocides: War, Race, and Revolution in the Twentieth Century
Eric D. Weitz	53	(22)
4 Seeking the Roots of Modern Genocide: On the Macro- and Microhistory of Mass Murder
Omer Bartov	75	(22)
5 Genocide and the Body Politic in the Time of Modernity
Marie Fleming	97	(20)
PART II: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND COLONIAL ISSUES
6 Genocides of Indigenous Peoples: Rhetoric of Human Rights
Elazar Barkan	117	(24)
7 Military Culture and the Production of "Final Solutions" in the Colonies: The Example of Wilhelminian Germany
Isabel V. Hull	141	(22)
8 "Encirclement and Annihilation": The Indonesian Occupation of East Timor
John G. Taylor	163	(26)
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	189	(26)
10 The Mechanism of a Mass Crime: The Great Terror in the Soviet Union, 1937-1938
Nicolas Werth	215	(26)
11 The Third Reich, the Holocaust, and Visions of Serial Genocide
Robert Gellately	241	(24)
12 Reflections on Modern Japanese History in the Context of the Concept of Genocide
Gavan McCormack	265	(1680)
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	289	(18)
14 Genocide in Cambodia and Ethiopia
Edward Kissi	307	(18)
15 Modern Genocide in Rwanda: Ideology, Revolution, War, and Mass Murder in an African State
Robert Melson	325	(14)
16 History, Motive, Law, Intent: Combining Historical and Legal Methods in Understanding Guatemala's 1981-1983 Genocide
Greg Grandin	339	(14)
17 Analysis of a Mass Crime: Ethnic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia, 1991-1999
Jacques Semelin	353	(20)
CONCLUSIONS
18 Investigating Genocide
Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan	373	(8)
Appendix: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide	381	(4)
Index	385