Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts

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Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts

Totten, Samuel.
University of Toronto Press, 2022, Fifth Edition, 736 pages. ISBN 9781487507756.

Description:
The new edition of this market-leading textbook includes a revised introduction and updated chapters with new research and insights. Four new case studies of twenty-first-century genocides bring this horrific history up to the present moment: the genocide perpetrated by the government during Argentina’s "Dirty War," the genocide of the Yazidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), genocidal violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, and China’s genocide of the Uyghurs. Powerful survivor testimonies bring the essays to life and help readers grapple with the difficult lessons presented throughout the book.

To help the reader learn about the similarities and differences among the various cases, each case is structured around specific leading questions. In every chapter authors address: Who committed the genocide? How was the genocide committed? Why was the genocide committed? Who were the victims? What were the outstanding historical forces? What was the long-range impact? What were the responses? How do scholars interpret this genocide? How does learning about this genocide contribute to the field of study?

While the material in each chapter is based on sterling scholarship and wide-ranging expertise of the authors, eyewitness accounts give voice to the victims. This book is an attempt to provoke the reader into understanding that learning about genocide is important and that we all have a responsibility not to become immune to acts of genocide, especially in the interdependent world in which we live today.

Sample Chapters:

  • The Genocide of California's Yana Indians, Ben Madley
  • Genocide in Australia, Colin Tatz
  • The Genocide of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa, 1904-1907, Dominik Schaller
  • The Armenian Genocide, Rouben Paul Adalian
  • Soviet Man-made Famine in Ukraine, James E. Mace
  • The Holocaust: Jews, Gypsies, and the Handicapped, Donald L. Niewyk
  • Genocide in Bangladesh, Rounaq Jahan
  • Genocide in Cambodia, Craig Etcheson
  • Guatemala: Acts of Genocide and Scorched-Earth Counterinsurgency War, Susanne Jonas
  • The Anfal Operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, Michiel Leezenberg
  • The 1994 Genocide of the Tutsi of Rwanda, Gerry Caplan
  • Genocidal Violence in the Former Yugoslavia: Bosnia Herzegovina, Martin Mennecke
  • Genocide in Darfur, Sudan, Samuel Totten
  • ISIS’s Genocide of the Yazidis Samuel Totten
  • Genocidal Violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar Ken MacLean
  • China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs, Samuel Totten

The fifth edition is available through University of Toronto Press.