Genocide ― A Reader

Genocide confounds scholars, practitioners, and laypersons alike. Despite the carnage of the twentieth century, our understanding of genocide remains partial. Popular, moralizing accounts have done their share to hinder understanding by attempting to advance simple truths in an area where none are to be had.

This Reader lays the foundation for improved explanation and understanding of genocide. Meierhenrich provides an introduction to the myriad dimensions of this darkest of human phenomena, and to the various ways of making sense of it-from autobiographical remembering to journalistic reporting to theoretical reasoning. As such, the Reader showcases our extant knowledge about genocide. It traverses boundaries, disciplinary and geographic, in an effort to acquaint readers with the complexity of the phenomenon, and the diversity and range of critical thinking that exists concerning it.

In pursuit of this goal, the volume assembles some 150 readings, selected for their ability to shed light on one of nine distinct themes in the study of genocide. The readings look at genocides all over the world in different periods of history, and attempt to understand different definitions of genocide. From the Irish Potato Famine to the decimation of Australian indigenous peoples to the Holocaust, Meierhenrich provides a variety of illuminating perspectives on how people commit, experience, and remember genocide.

Jens Meierhenrich is Associate Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, and previously taught at Harvard University. He is the author of several books and articles, including Lawfare and The Legacies of Law, which won the American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs. He is also the author of Genocide: A Very Short Introduction and currently at work on a genocide trilogy.