Description
Book SynopsisBenjamin A. Valentino finds that ethnic hatreds or discrimination, undemocratic systems of government, and dysfunctions in society play a much smaller role in mass killing and genocide than is commonly assumed. He shows that the impetus for mass...
Trade ReviewIn this brilliant study of genocides and mass murders, Valentino analyzes conditions leading to such monstrous crimes based on more than eight cases.... Valentino's extraordinary scholarship provides a challenge to conventional wisdom about what can and should be done about genocide.
* Choice *
In trying to make sense of such violence, scholars have tended to look within societies: at collective psychology, ethnic and racial hatred, and the character of government. In this astute and provocative study, Valentino argues instead that leaders, not societies, are to blame. In most cases, he finds that powerful leaders use mass killing to advance their own interests or indulge their own hatreds, rather than to carry out the desires of their constituencies.... Valentino cleverly notes that if mass killing is not deeply rooted in society but a tactic of state power, the rest of the world has fewer excuses for inaction.
* Foreign Affairs *
Valentino's analysis is flawless. His empirically rooted case studies are appropriate and interpretive strategies rigorous.
* Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Mass Killing in Historical and Theoretical Perspective
1. Mass Killing and Genocide
2. The Perpetrators and the Public
3. The Strategic Logic of Mass Killing
4. Communist Mass Killings: The Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia
5. Ethnic Mass Killings: Turkish Armenia. Nazi Germany, and Rwanda
6. Counterguerrilla Mass Killings: Guatemala and Afghanistan
Conclusion: Anticipating and Preventing Mass Killing
Notes
Index
