Final solutions : mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Valentino, Benjamin A., 1971-
Imprint:	Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, ©2004.
Description:	1 online resource (viii, 317 pages)
Language:	English
Series:	Cornell studies in security affairs Cornell studies in security affairs.
Subject:	Genocide -- History -- 20th century. Massacres -- History -- 20th century. Political atrocities -- History -- 20th century. War crimes -- History -- 20th century. Crimes against humanity -- History -- 20th century. Genocide -- Prevention. Intervention (International law) Crimes against humanity. Genocide. Genocide -- Prevention. Intervention (International law) Massacres. Political atrocities. War crimes. Electronic books. History.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11173978

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:	Mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century
ISBN:	9780801467172 0801467179 0801472733 9780801472732 0801439655 9780801439650 9780801472732 0801472733
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-309) and index.
Summary:	Benjamin A. Valentino finds that ethnic hatreds or discrimination, undemocratic systems of government, and dysfunctions in society play a much smaller role in mass killing and genocide than is commonly assumed. He shows that the impetus for mass killing usually originates from a relatively small group of powerful leaders and is often carried out without the active support of broader society. Mass killing, in his view, is a brutal political or military strategy designed to accomplish leaders' most important objectives, counter threats to their power, and solve their most difficult problems. In order to capture the full scope of mass killing during the twentieth century, Valentino does not limit his analysis to violence directed against ethnic groups, or to the attempt to destroy victim groups as such, as do most previous studies of genocide. Rather, he defines mass killing broadly as the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants, using the criteria of 50,000 or more deaths within five years as a quantitative standard. Final Solutions focuses on three types of mass killing: communist mass killings like the ones carried out in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia; ethnic genocides as in Armenia, Nazi Germany, and Rwanda; and "counter-guerrilla" campaigns including the brutal civil war in Guatemala and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Valentino closes the book by arguing that attempts to prevent mass killing should focus on disarming and removing from power the leaders and small groups responsible for instigating and organizing the killing.
Other form:	Print version: Valentino, Benjamin A., 1971- Final solutions. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, ©2004
Standard no.:	9780801472732

Review by Choice Review

In this brilliant study of genocides and mass murders (defined as the killing of 50,000 or more noncombatants within five years), Valentino (Dartmouth) analyzes conditions leading to such monstrous crimes based on more than eight cases (genocides in the USSR, China, Cambodia, Turkish Armenia, Nazi Germany, and Rwanda, along with counterguerrilla atrocities in Guatemala and Afghanistan) and, conversely, occasions when distrusted minorities and groups associated with guerrilla militants were not targeted for mass murders. Altogether they support his general thesis: crimes such as genocide are somewhat predictable because they are caused by small, unrepresentative groups of leaders who make calculated strategic decisions to salvage their most cherished policy objectives. It is primarily leaders, not some combination of social cleavages, national crises, scapegoated minorities, or authoritarian systems that best explain such crimes. The best comparative studies include Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil (1989), an explication of multiple social and psychological variables associated with genocide and mass murders; Peter Ronayne, Never Again? (2001), a concise overview; and Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell (2002), the most cogent, compelling explanation of America's repeated failures to respond to 20th-century genocides. Valentino's extraordinary scholarship provides a challenge to conventional wisdom about what can and should be done about genocide. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels. P. G. Conway SUNY College at Oneonta

Review by Choice Review

Final solutions : mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century /

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