Resumo de Century Of Genocide - SAMUEL TOTTEN,WILLIAM PARSON,ISRAEL CHARNY

Century of Genocide is a survey of genocide in the
twentieth century. It contains fourteen chapters, by specialists, on a broad
range of events, including some not usually labeled as genocide (some chapters
in fact avoid the term completely). The introduction examines how the strength
of our responses to atrocity vary with our distance from the victims, and
canvasses the practical problem of how to prevent future genocides. It refrains
from abstract theorizing about definitions and the chapters mostly follow suit,
making Century of Genocide refreshingly free from academic jargon.

Each of the chapters has two parts: a critical essay and a collection of
eyewitness accounts. The essays provide an overview of the events, but
concentrate on their background and aftermath, on questions such as who was
responsible, what historical, economic, and social factors were involved, what
the immediate and long-term effects on the victim community were, and what the
response of the international community was, both at the time and later. It is
left to the eyewitness accounts to provide immediacy and a feel for the actual
events. They also provide an emotional and affective complement without which
the scholarly essays might seem lacking.

The events are covered in roughly chronological order. First is the genocide
of the Hereros by the Germans in Southwest Africa
in 1904, a brutal but little known episode of colonial history. The Turkish
genocide of the Armenians between 1915 and 1923 is, because of the Turkish
government''s refusal to accept that it happened, still a contested subject (and
the infamous anti-Armenian robo-poster, Serdar Argic, made it a hot topic on
Usenet a few years ago).

There is, of course, a chapter on the Holocaust of the Jews, but Century
of Genocide also includes chapters on the less well known Holocaust of the
Gypsies and the slaughter of the disabled and handicapped in the Nazi eugenics
program. There are also chapters on the Soviet-created famine in the Ukraine in
1932-33 (in which millions died) and the Soviet deportations of entire ethnic
groups during World War II, acts which were genocidal in implication if not
intention.

Though half a million people may have been killed in the suppression of the
communist party in Indonesia
in 1965-66, the event is rarely described as genocidal. Its treatment in this
volume doesn''t seem at all out of place, however. Still less familiar to most
will be the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh,
notable for the systematic use of mass rape as an instrument of war and the
deliberate targeting of educational and cultural elites for destruction. The
chapter on the Cambodian genocide (by Ben Kiernan) is one of the few to enter
into historiographical debates, devoting a fair bit of space to controversies
between figures such as Shawcross and Pilger.

The chapter on East Timor covers events
between 1975 and 1979, but the response to those events is very much a live
issue. There is a chapter on the genocide in Burundi
in 1972 as well as one on the recent genocide in Rwanda, a useful parallel treatment
(by the same author). A general chapter on the physical and cultural genocide
of indigenous peoples is the timeliest in the volume, since it deals with
events which are underway even at this very moment, around the world. A brief
final chapter considers the events in Bosnia-Herzegovina from a theoretical
perspective, focusing on the difficulties of distinguishing genocide from war
crimes and ethnic war, and on the ways in which scholarly analysis is
immediately politicized when genocide enters the picture.

Century of Genocide is a sobering work, but one that is also
accessible and arresting. Though it lacks a consistent theoretical framework,
by taking a broad view that encompasses events from throughout the century and
around the world it helps the reader to step back from particular events to
consider general questions. Gidal events are a common target for those who
would deny or twist history to their own ends, so a widely accessible,
scholarly study of them is an important resource. Century of Genocide
is one book that really should be on the shelves of every library ? and read by
everyone concerned with the darkest parts of twentieth century history.

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