ABSTRACT
"Genocide" may be the most powerful word in the English language. What is the significance and relevance of this formative concept today? In an extraordinarily wide-ranging collection of essays and interviews, Adam Jones, one of the world's leading genocide scholars, explores the uses and controversies surrounding the term that Raphael Lemkin coined during World War Two, to describe and prohibit mass atrocities against defined human groups.
In a style that is learned but always accessible and engaging, Jones addresses key historical and contemporary issues, such as: What were the motivations and proclaimed justifications for genocide in the "long nineteenth century" that shaped our modern world? How can "humanitarian" interventions in genocide avoid sliding into a new imperialism? What are the connections between religion and genocide? How can the gender variable in genocide perpetration and victimization be understood? A wide range of historical and contemporary genocides and crimes against humanity, from the 18th-century slave rebellion in Haiti, to Myanmar's destruction of the Rohingya, and to the forms of structural and systemic violence that Jones argues should be encompassed by any global-historical understanding of genocide.
Sites of Genocide is illustrated with photos from Jones's own collection and other sources. It will be of interest to all students and scholars of human rights, and for general readers seeking a point of entry to the rich and provocative debates in comparative genocide studies.
Introduction: Seized of Sorrow Part 1: History and Culture 1 Genocide and Global/World History 2 Genocide and Holocaust 3 Genocide in the Long Nineteenth Century: Motivations and Justifications 4 Genocide and the West 5 Religion, Genocide, and Islamic State 6 The Bangladeshi Genocide in Comparative Perspective 6 The Rohingya Genocide 7 Challenges of Genocide Intervention 8 Chomsky and Genocide 9 The Great Lakes Genocides: Hidden Histories, Hidden Precedents 10 Denying Rwanda, Denying Congo Part 2: Gendering Genocide 11 Gender, Genocide and Gendercide 12 Gendering Rwanda 13 Masculinities and Vulnerabilities in the Rwandan and Congolese Genocides 14 Sexual Violence against Males 15 Interview by Noah Berlatsky 16 Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Men 17 Interview with CBC Unreserved Coda 19 What Leads to Genocide?
