Genocide: A World History(New Oxford World History)

Genocide occurs in every time period and on every continent. Using the 1948 U.N. definition of genocide as its departure point, this book examines the main episodes in the history of genocide from the beginning of human history to the present. Norman M. Naimark lucidly shows that genocide both changes over time, depending on the character of major historical periods, and remains the same in many of its murderous dynamics. He examines cases of genocide as distinct episodes of mass violence, but also in historical connection with earlier episodes.Unlike much of the literature in genocide studies, Naimark argues that genocide can also involve the elimination of targeted social and political groups, providing an insightful analysis of communist and anti-communist genocide. He pays special attention to settler (sometimes colonial) genocide as a subject of major concern, illuminating how deeply the elimination of indigenous peoples, especially in Africa, South America, and North America, influenced recent historical developments. At the same time, the "classic" cases of genocide in the twentieth Century - the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, Rwanda, and Bosnia -- are discussed, together with recent episodes in Darfur and Congo.

Table of Contents:
Editors' Preface Introduction Chapter 1: The Ancient World Chapter 2: Warrior Genocides Chapter 3: The Spanish Conquest Chapter 4: Settler Genocide Chapter 5: Modern Genocides Chapter 6: Communist Genocides Chapter 7: Anti-Communist Genocide Chapter 8: Genocide in the Post-Cold War World Conclusion Chronology Notes Further Reading Websites Acknowledgments Index

About the Author :
Norman Naimark is Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of East European Studies and Sakurako and William Fisher Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division at Stanford University. A Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution and Freeman-Spogli Institute of International Studies, he has published several books, including Fires of Hatred: A History of Ethnic Cleansing in Modern Europe and Stalin's Genocides.

Review :
"While this volume will provide a robust synthesis for advanced students and scholars, it is also an important resource for students new to the topic. Includes an excellent chronology, further reading list, and relevant Web sites for additional information....Essential."--C. Pinto, CHOICE " [T]he value of this broad perspective is in the compelling connections he makes, and his drawing out of, as he described it, the remarkable and frightening similarity in genocides throughout recorded history....Genocide: A World History succeeds in Naimark's aim of drawing out of that remarkable and frightening similarity in the cases considered."--Ashley Kalagian BluntSydney Review of Books