Studies In Comparative Genocide

Many of the world's leading authorities from history, sociology, political science and psychology shed new light on the major genocides of the 20th century in this excellent collection. Contributors Irving L. Horowitz and Roger W. Smith provide broad interpretative introductions to the subject. The essays explore events from the Armenian Genocide and the Ukrainian famine up to the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides. Thirteen of the fourteen essays are previously unpublished.

Many of the world's leading authorities in history, sociology, political science and psychology shed new light on the major genocides of the twentieth century. Featured authors include Irving Louis Horowitz, Helen Fein, Vahakn Dadrian, Roger W. Smith, Henry Huttenbach, Ervin Staub, and Turkish historian Taner Ak. The volume covers the genocides of the Armenians, Ukrainians, Jews, Gypsies, Rwandans and Bosnians, and also topics of genocide denial and prevention.

Genocide studies is a relatively new field of comparative inquiry, but recent years have seen an increasing range of themes and subject-matter being addressed that reflect a variety of features of the field and transformations within it. This edited book brings together established scholars with rising stars and seeks to capture the range of new approaches, theories, and case studies in the field. The book is divided into three broad sections: Section I focuses on broad theories of comparative genocide, covering a number of different perspectives. Section II critically reconsiders core themes of genocide studies and unfolds a range of challenging new directions, including cultural genocide, gender and genocide (as it pertains to both women and men), structural violence, and the novel application of remote-sensing technologies to the detection and study of genocide. Section III is case-study focused, seeking to place both canonical and little-known cases of genocide in broader comparative perspective. Cases analyzed include genocide in North America, the Nazi Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and the Sri Lankan genocide. The combination of cutting-edge scholarship and innovative approaches to familiar subjects makes this essential reading for all students and scholars in the field of genocide studies.

In essays written specifically for this volume, distinguished contributors assess highly charged and fundamental questions about the Holocaust: Is it unique? How can it be compared with other instances of genocide? What constitutes genocide, and how should the international community respond? On one side of the dispute are those who fear that if the Holocaust is seen as the worst case of genocide ever, its character will diminish the sufferings of other persecuted groups. On the other side are those who argue that unless the Holocaust's uniqueness is established, the inevitable tendency will be to diminish its abiding significance. The editor's introductions provide the contextual considerations for understanding this multidimensional dispute and suggest that there are universal lessons to be learned from studying the Holocaust. The third edition brings this volume up to date and includes new readings on the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides, common themes in genocide ideologies, and Iran's reaction to the Holocaust. In a world where genocide persists and the global community continues to struggle with the implications of international crime, prosecution, justice, atonement, reparation, and healing, the issues addressed in this book are as relevant as ever.

Genocide has scarred human societies since Antiquity. In the modern era, genocide has been a global phenomenon: from massacres in colonial America, Africa, and Australia to the Holocaust of European Jewry and mass death in Maoist China. In recent years, the discipline of 'genocide studies' has developed to offer analysis and comprehension. The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies is the first book to subject both genocide and the young discipline it has spawned to systematic, in-depth investigation. Thirty-four renowned experts study genocide through the ages by taking regional, thematic, and disciplinary-specific approaches. Chapters examine secessionist and political genocides in modern Asia. Others treat the violent dynamics of European colonialism in Africa, the complex ethnic geography of the Great Lakes region, and the structural instability of the continent's northern horn. South and North America receive detailed coverage, as do the Ottoman Empire, Nazi-occupied Europe, and post-communist Eastern Europe. Sustained attention is paid to themes like gender, memory, the state, culture, ethnic cleansing, military intervention, the United Nations, and prosecutions. The work is multi-disciplinary, featuring the work of historians, anthropologists, lawyers, political scientists, sociologists, and philosophers. Uniquely combining empirical reconstruction and conceptual analysis, this Handbook presents and analyses regions of genocide and the entire field of 'genocide studies' in one substantial volume.

Genocide isn't past tense and the Nazi and Bosnian eras are not yet closed. The demonising of people as 'unworthy' and expendable is ever-present and the consequences are all too evident in the daily news. These fourteen essays by Australian scholars confront the issues: the need for a measuring scale that encompasses differences and similarities between seemingly divergent cases of the crime; the complicity of bureaucracies, the healing professions and the churches in this 'crime of crimes'; the quest for historical justice for genocide victims generally following the Nuremberg Trials; the fate of children in the Nazi and postwar eras; the 'worthiness' of Armenians, Jews and Romani people in twentieth century Europe; and the imperative to tackle early warning signs of an incipient genocide. Colin Tatz is a founding director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, visiting fellow in Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, and honorary visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He teaches and publishes in comparative race politics, youth suicide, migration studies, and sports history.