Genocide is not an invention of the twentieth century say Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn in this absorbing book but has occurred throughout history in all parts of the world This study the first comprehensive survey of the history and sociology of genocide presents over two dozen examples of the one sided mass slaughter of peoples spanning the centuries from antiquity to the present By including political and social groups as potential victims Chalk and Jonassohn provide a definition of genocide that is considerably broader than that contained in the United Nations Convention on Genocide They present a typology of genocide according to the motives of the perpetrator to eliminate a perceived threat to spread terror among real or potential enemies to acquire economic wealth or to implement a belief theory or ideology Chalk and Jonassohn show how the first three motives have played a role in the establishment and maintenance of empires They note that since empires have almost disappeared so have these three types of genocides become rare and that ideological genocides have become the most important type of genocide in the twentieth century The second part of the book consists of selected studies These include Rome s final war with Carthage the Mongol Conquests the Albigensian Crusades the Great Witch Hunt Christians in Japan Indians in the Americas Ndwandwe under Shaka Zulu Hereros in German South West Africa Armenians in Turkey the Soviet Union under Stalin the Holocaust Indonesia Bangladesh Burundi and Cambodia among others The last part of the book presents topical bibliographies to aid the student and researcher

The History and Sociology of Genocide PDF

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