Amazon.com
Author Simon Weisenthal recalls his demoralizing life in a concentration camp and his envy of the dead Germans who have sunflowers marking their graves. At the time he assumed his grave would be a mass one, unmarked and forgotten. Then, one day, a dying Nazi soldier asks Weisenthal for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jews. What would you do? This important book and the provocative question it poses is birthing debates, symposiums, and college courses. The Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Primo Levi, and others who have witnessed genocide and human tyranny answer Wiesenthal's ultimate question on forgiveness.
Book Description
While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing. But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?
In this important book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Their responses, as varied as their experiences of the world, remind us that Wiesenthal's questions are not limited to events of the past. Often surprising and always thought provoking,
The Sunflower will challenge you to define your beliefs about justice, compassion, and human responsibility.
Customer Reviews:
Gets you thinking.......2007-08-25
A wonderful short story of 100 pages, written very well. The opinions of all the commentators afterwards on Wiesenthals dilemma is very intriguing. This book gets you involved, and could be the best book ever written on the topic of forgiveness. You just can't help but think deeply about the author's decision to forgive, and also about forgiveness in your own life.
Wonderful book!.......2007-08-13
This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the mortal dilemas which affected those who suffered so much from the violence of the holocaust. Amazing that ther author was able to retain his huaminity in the face of such evil, and a testament to his moral character.
The Sunflower.......2007-02-19
This book focuses on a cogent question by way of a true story and invites response from all sorts of people with pertinent experience, providing biographies of these respondents. The topic is forgiveness. I found the analysis by Dennis Prager, an L.A. talk show host, the most understanding of Christian/Jewish outlooks and Jose Hobday's perhaps the best of the Christian contributions. I am eager to discuss it with members of my theology group.
A must read on forgiveness.......2007-02-14
The title of the book comes from the tall, bright sunflowers placed upon the German soldier's graves who are buried just outside the concentration camp where the Jewish prisoners must pass daily on their way to work projects. Each grave had one "as straight as a soldier on parade . . . . " The tall golden flowers stand in contrast to the unmarked, unidentifiable mass graves, in which most of the prisoners will end up
.
This revised edition was issued in honor of the twentieth anniversary of its publication. It is divided into two sections: an extraordinary request to Simon for forgiveness by a dying 21 old SS man and the 53 responses (ten from the original volume) from prominent theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China, and Tibet. Their answers reflect the teachings of their diverse beliefs - Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, secular, and agnostic - and remind us that Wiesenthal's question is not limited to events of the past. Certainly there are fundamental lessons that are as essential today as they were 60 years ago.
Who can forgive crimes committed against others asks Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the most significant Jewish theologians of the 20th century.
Are there any similarities between the national guilt faced by the German people for the Holocaust and ours for the institution of slavery and the genocide of Native Americans wonders Martin E. Marty, religious scholar and Lutheran Pastor.
Are followers in committing atrocities as guilty as their leaders inquires Dith Pran, photographer and subject of the film, "The Killing Fields," about Cambodian genocide.
Is silence its own answer if we could but learn to listen to it? Are there questions that are unanswerable queries of the soul, matters too awe-full for human response, too demonic for profound rational resolution poses Hubert Locke, Dean Emeritus, Evans School of Public Policy, University of Washington
By not forgiving do we somehow remain victims wonders Harold Kushner, Rabbi and best-selling author.
One day as part of a detail working at a hospital, Simon it taken by a nurse to see a dying young SS officer named Karl Seidl, who wants forgiveness and absolution from a Jew for the terrible things he had done, in particular an incident in which he murdered 150 Jewish men, women and children who were herded into a small house that was set on fire and when those trying to escape or jump to safety were all shot. Simon has no answer and leaves. He refuses a package of clothing the officer wants him to have telling her to ship it to the deceased's mother.
During the next two years, Wiesenthal shared this story with fellow camp mates, ending each time with: Was my silence at the bedside of the dying Nazi right or wrong?
After the war, Simon visits the officer's mother living in a bombed-out apartment in Stuttgart. All she has left are the memories of her "good son." Wiesenthal wrestles with whether he should tell her the truth about her son, but leaves saying nothing about the atrocities he took part in. She is allowed to keep her memories.
Simon addresses the reader with this critical question: "You, who have just read this sad and tragic episode in my life, can mentally change places with me and ask yourself the crucial question, 'What would I have done?'"
Simon Wiesehthal died on September 21, 2005 at the age of 96. He and his wife Cyla lost 89 relatives during the Holocaust. Simon helped to bring more than 1100 war criminals to justice, including Eichmann, Stangl, and the Nazi who took Anne Frank from her home and sent her to her death. He has been honored with numerous awards for his work, including "Commander of the Order of Orange" in the Netherlands, "Commendatore della Repubblica" in Italy, a gold medal for humanitarian work by the United States Congress, the Jerusalem Medal in Israel, and sixteen honorary doctorates. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, located in Los Angeles, is named in honor of him.
The Sunflower will force you to think deeply about issues we rarely discuss but which are essential to building and maintaining relationships, with each other and with ourselves.
Beautiful, horrifying and sad, but beautiful........2006-12-14
I didn't read this book so much as experience it. Not meant, I think, to be read from cover to cover in a sitting, but to be reflected over - or if you are like me, pondered for a long time after. I thought I could define forgiveness until reading this; I was wrong. it's many things to different people. I guess that I am in the same camp as those writers who subscribed to the idea that it is a rank act to pontificate about what a man in Simon Wiesenthal's position should have done. Most of the contributors transcended "preachiness", however, and have shared their ideas with compassion, anger and insight.
A wonderful, truly worthy read.
Amazon.com
"Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus--if that's really all there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it," Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in a country far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. But the situation is not so simple, and in this complex and wrenching book, he explains why the Rwandan genocide should not be written off as just another tribal dispute.
The "stories" in this book's subtitle are both the author's, as he repeatedly visits this tiny country in an attempt to make sense of what has happened, and those of the people he interviews. These include a Tutsi doctor who has seen much of her family killed over decades of Tutsi oppression, a Schindleresque hotel manager who hid hundreds of refugees from certain death, and a Rwandan bishop who has been accused of supporting the slaughter of Tutsi schoolchildren, and can only answer these charges by saying, "What could I do?" Gourevitch, a staff writer for the New Yorker, describes Rwanda's history with remarkable clarity and documents the experience of tragedy with a sober grace. The reader will ask along with the author: Why does this happen? And why don't we bother to stop it? --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.In April 1994, the Rwandan government called upon everyone in the Hutu majority to kill each member of the Tutsi minority, and over the next three months 800,000 Tutsis perished in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch's haunting work is an anatomy of the war in Rwanda, a vivid history of the tragedy's background, and an unforgettable account of its aftermath. One of the most acclaimed books of the year, this account will endure as a chilling document of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Compelling.......2007-09-22
My prep for going to Rwanda was reading this book. This is a snapshot of the state Rwanda was in during the 100 days and the aftermath. However, much has been done to repair the damage. This is a time of reconciliation and healing. Go to Rwanda and see for yourself. It will change your life.
Will really let you see into this tradgedy........2007-05-29
What a great book. Such insight and it really helps you understand what happened in Rwanda. Especially the history of all the long ago violence and things that have happened over the years. Great book and a must read for everyone.
This could happen everywhere or anywhere in the world. Can really open your eyes into how much we all could be killers or saviors at any one time.
Highly recommended.
The Heartbreak of Hate.......2007-04-10
Gourevitch's jarring telling of the atrocities of hate hit with an imact of severe sorrow. The overwhelming scale of the murders in Rwanda are incomprehensible. It is sad to realize that in this age people allow hate and propoganda to rule their lives.
Excellent Book.......2007-03-27
This book was very well written and informative about the genocide that occurred in Rwanda.
Heartbreaking stories from Rwanda.......2007-03-19
This is a superb book, a collection of interviews and incidents from the genocide in Rwanda. There are portraits of unimaginable betrayal, brutality and horror, but also of heroism--the owner of the Hotel Rwanda, for instance. The description of the conduct of the "refugee" camps is particularly useful as a warning on what is likely to happen in the next crisis, and should force us to re-examine our ways of providing relief for people in distress across the world.
Amazon.com
During the three years (1993-1996) Samantha Power spent covering the grisly events in Bosnia and Srebrenica, she became increasingly frustrated with how little the United States was willing to do to counteract the genocide occurring there. After much research, she discovered a pattern: "The United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred," she writes in this impressive book. Debunking the notion that U.S. leaders were unaware of the horrors as they were occurring against Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Rwandan Tutsis, and Bosnians during the past century, Power discusses how much was known and when, and argues that much human suffering could have been alleviated through a greater effort by the U.S. She does not claim that the U.S. alone could have prevented such horrors, but does make a convincing case that even a modest effort would have had significant impact. Based on declassified information, private papers, and interviews with more than 300 American policymakers, Power makes it clear that a lack of political will was the most significant factor for this failure to intervene. Some courageous U.S. leaders did work to combat and call attention to ethnic cleansing as it occurred, but the vast majority of politicians and diplomats ignored the issue, as did the American public, leading Power to note that "no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on." This powerful book is a call to make such indifference a thing of the past. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize For General Nonfiction National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
In her award-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, Samantha Power -- a former Balkan war correspondent and founding executive director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy -- asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to stop genocide? Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policy makers, access to newly declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power provides the answer in "A Problem from Hell" -- a groundbreaking work that tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act.
Customer Reviews:
The problem of International Liberalism.......2007-09-24
Samantha Power's 'A Problem from Hell' is a broad attempt to document the major acts of genocide/human rights violations of the 20th century paired with the international community's subsequent negligence in each case. She reports on the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and especially her major areas of research- Rwanda and Serbia.
However, Powers is content to simply recount major instances of crimes against humanity that the U.S. and other major Western powers simply ignored (a worthy historical task), rather than to document the major atrocities the U.S. supported/participated in (the far more morally serious and honest task). While she is scrupulous in her documentation of the horrors of Rwanda and Iraq, her sections on Indo-China fail miserably. She provides a lengthy and conventional chapter on the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, without mentioning to inform us about the U.S.'s massive contribution to such atrocities (only side references are provided). Additionally, she mentions in a rather depraved manner, that "In 1975, when its ally, the oil-producing, anti-Communist Indonesia, invaded Timor, killing between 100,000 and 200,000 civilians, the United States looked away" (147). In actuality, the U.S. did not look away: it funded the genocide, and President Carter deliberately escalated the intensity of the atrocities. This is the essence of Power's political backwardness. Pointing to the atrocities of official enemies is easy, it is far more difficult and necessary to point to the atrocities of the U.S. and its allies. Nowhere does Powers discuss Israel and the Palestinians, nowhere does she discuss the Pinochet, or the Contras, or Kissinger for that matter. So long as the the liberal intelligentsia refuses to stare in the mirror, the world will continue to be an arena of exploitation, injustice, and crimes against humanity.
Simply put: One of the books one must read in one's lifetime........2007-05-10
Simply put: One of the books one must read in one's lifetime.
Well researched, not so well argued.......2007-04-06
A 500+ page polemic against American non-interventionism in other people's wars. This book won the Pulitzer Prize, and it deserved to for the sheer amount of research that went into it. Unfortunately, the author's zealotry too frequently leads her to making sweeping, overly simplistic declarations, or even to contradicting her own arguments. For example, she stresses the importance of applying the term "genocide" to mass killings because of its emotional impact, yet she wants it applied so broadly that the inevitable result would be a diminution of that impact. She also applies a remarkable double standard to the Serbs: while (quite justifiably) condemning the (many) occasions in which they were the perpetrators of ethnic violence, she either excuses, tries to undermine the credibility of, or simply ignores the cases in which they were the victims. There are a number of examples of this, but the most staggering one is her depiction of their expulsion from the Croatian Krajina. The single largest episode of ethnic cleansing in the Serb-Croat-Bosnian wars, and what does she give to it? Less than one paragraph - and portrayed as a positive development! I almost threw the book across the room when I read that.
She makes it clear that in all the cases she describes, she thinks the US should have done whatever it took, up to and including sending ground troops, to stop the carnage. But she fails to really think through the logical consequences of her thesis. If genocide really is defined as broadly as she suggests, then there must have been dozens if not hundreds of episodes of it over the past century. Should the US have intervened in all of them, and how exactly - from a practical perspective if nothing else - could it have been expected to do so? Is it really advisable for a country with such a history of imperialism (and with its own record of genocide, certainly by her definition, against the native peoples of its own land) to become the world's cop? If General Dallaire was correct that he could have stopped the killings in Rwanda with just 5,000 more UN peacekeeping troops, then isn't the logical solution to reform the UN so that in future it can and will actually provide those troops? And why just America, what about all the other countries in the world that didn't intervene, either? None of these questions are really answered, at all.
Omission awarded?.......2007-04-03
Despite the Israeli policy towards the Palestinians fits the definition of genocide given in the book, Power ignores the Palestinian case. I wonder if this book was awarded for its contents or its omission. It could be a good book if complete! If you want to know about genocide, read Charny , Finkelstein and others, authors with a wider vision.
a must-read.......2007-03-12
flew through this book...its written with a great style and pace. power goes over quite a few crucial conflicts that still have aftershocks today. i read the section on rwanda in grad school, and it still makes my blood boil. also, power documents the efforts of republicans to block any actions or sanctions on iraq after hussein gassed the kurds and iranians in the 80's - of course now, they reference those crimes as reasons we were right to invade in 2003.
Book Description
For four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finally out across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or white Americans went, the native people were caught between imported plagues and barbarous atrocities, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of their populations. What kind of people, he asks, do such horrendous things to others? His highly provocative answer: Christians. Digging deeply into ancient European and Christian attitudes toward sex, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for the centuries-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against the New World's original inhabitants. Advancing a thesis that is sure to create much controversy, Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the same ideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust. It is an ideology that remains dangerously alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has surfaced in American justifications for large-scale military intervention in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At once sweeping in scope and meticulously detailed, American Holocaust is a work of impassioned scholarship that is certain to ignite intense historical and moral debate.
Customer Reviews:
In answer to conservative pseudointellectuals..........2007-09-24
All of the big words and "references" in the world won't change history for you, unfortunately. I notice that among the people who did not like this book, they all pretty much said the same thing: That Stannard didn't paint an accurate picture of the natives of the western hemisphere. That he didn't acknowledge cannabalism (he did), that he didn't acknowledge human sacrifice (he did - to the tune of 20,000 per year in the Inca capital), and that he didn't acknowledge inter-tribal warfare and cruelty (he most certainly did). One of the reasons I liked this book so much was its extensive reference section (with explanations as to most of the references, so if you have any questions about something...LOOK IT UP). It'd do you all some good, rather than blindly naysaying whatever doesn't fit your racist little mold. Does it really MATTER whether or not native peoples practiced unsavory rituals? They're all dead.
In any case, the book was superb and whatever your views are regarding the native peoples mentioned in the book, one point remains irrefutable: They were exterminated. It was deliberate. It was planned, sanctioned, supported, and financed by every exploratory realm in Europe and by the American government throughout it's short and brutal history. You all know it.
This is one of the most important books that you will ever read in your entire life.......2007-04-29
It is amazing that we live in a country that was built upon holocaust but we yet we are in complete denial. And not just the U.S., the entire Americas. This book discloses the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and and other Europeans. It also dispels the myth that prior to the arrival of Columbus, America was nothing more than open prairie lands. And it reveals that the so-called new world was heavily populated before the mosting devasting and the largest genocide committed in history. It does more than reveal the diseases that the Spaniards and other Europeans brought to the new world. It uncovers the enslavement and intentional massacres of countless natives of the new world. A sad thing about this book is that those who need to read this book most (the ones in denial), will probably never read this book and continue to perpetuate the lie that no holocaust or genocide was ever committed in the Americas by the Spaniards and other Europeans. If you only read one book over the next decade, this should be it.
Simplisitc and sensationalistic.......2007-03-26
Almost every time someone uses the word 'holocaust' when they are not referring to the actual Holocaust between 1939 and 1945, they use it in an incorrect and sensationalistic manner, comparing the incomparible. This is no exception. It is true that millions of people died following the arrival of Europeans in the New World in 1492. However 90% of them died from Disease. This was an extraordinary number, but there is a difference between planning to murder so many and having them die for biological reasons(not being immune to disease). Indeed many of even the most cynical Spaniards were dismayed that the Indians were dying, either because they could no longer be used as slaves or because they could no longer be enslaved. It is rediculous to pretend that this was a 'holocaust' unless the black Plague that swept Europe in the 13th-14th centuries was also a holocuast.
In addition this book accuses the Europeans of 'racism' which is a patent lie. Race did not propell Europeans across the seas in 1492 and the years afterword. It is true that Europeans looked different than the indigenous people of the New World, but it is not true that this was what motivated colonization, ensalvement, war or exploitation.
Just as the rise of most empires, such as the Chinese or Ottoman, are not accused of being tied up in racism, it is comical to pretend that men like Columbus had any concept of the 19th century ideas of race. The notions are neither found in thier writings or documents and that is why none are quoted in this book. In fact many Spaniards defended the Indians, such as Bartholemew De Las Casas, but all those people are conveniently ignored here. Not a suprise.
Seth J. Frantzman
Crimes of Aggression and Occupation Revealed.......2007-03-18
David Stannard reveals the awful truth of Aggression and Occupation, misnamed "Discovery" and "Settlement," in the Americas. Readers who, in the names of education and religion, have been exposed to five centuries of revisionist history should be horrified at the truth. If they aren't, it will be a testament to the effectiveness of the church, school and university propaganda to which they have been exposed. The horrors of other holocausts are not excused by recognition that the holcaust in the Americas, perpetrated by European Christians against ancient civilizations were the most horrible in the history of mankind. They continue to this day.
THE SINGLE FINEST AND MOST ESSENTIAL BOOK OF THE AGE .......2006-06-06
A masterpiece of scholarship and analysis.
This book is nothing less than the single most important work that you will ever read.
Our entire culture is built on Holocaust Denial while those most responsible for this abnesia drape themselves in the flag of holocaust memorialism but have little honesty in their true agenda. An agenda that allows in North America alone for there to be at least 50 Holocaust memorials, museums and monuments...
only problem is they are ALL about the Holocaust that happened in Europe and NOT about the colossal extermination that took place where they live. It is not only denial on the part of the nations of the Americas and Europe but those responsible for this Holocaust Denial in relation to Indian America insist on an image of being the world's caretakers of holocaust memory. What a bloody audacity.
Why do we let the Spanish off the hook so lightly? Why is there no demand for Spain to make its Mea Culpa? Why is there no AMERICAS HOLOCAUST memorial in Madrid, Washington, London and Ottawa ?
This brilliant book re-addresses the imbalance.
POST SCRIPT....
There is a reviewer further down who uses the monica of
"history buff" who rejects the value and integrity of this work. In fact he utterly insults Mr Stannard and his thesis.
So I thought I would check out his other reviews...oh boy!
One of the remarks he makes in a book claiming that Saddam was behind 9/11 goes "But it is very difficult to argue with the facts that were available to the agencies which pointed to a direct link between Saddam and Al Qaeda." This example of his world view is the mild end of it. So people consider the character of the self-described "history buff" who rejects Stannard's brilliant thesis on the Holocaust in the Americas.
The reviewer "history buff" has a world view that comes straight out of the 1950's HUAC committee (he associates all Left wing thought with the Soviet Union not knowing that the Bolshevik regime prohibited the platform of the revolution and that its first victims were in fact the most sincere and dedicated Left revolutionaries. Clearly he has never read the finest autobiography in the history of English language autobiography; Emma Goldman's LIVING MY LIFE volume 1 and volume 2. The latter volume includes a first hand account of the destruction NOT construction of socialism by Lenin and his cohorts ).
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Book Description
In 1915, under the cover of a world war, some one million Armenians were killed through starvation, forced marches, forced exile, and mass acts of slaughter. Although Armenians and world opinion have held the Ottoman powers responsible, Turkey has consistently rejected any claim of intentional genocide. Now, in a pioneering work of excavation, Turkish historian Taner Akam has made extensive and unprecedented use of Ottoman and other sources to produce a scrupulous charge sheet against the Turkish authorities. The first scholar of any nationality to have mined the significant evidencein Turkish military and court records, parliamentary minutes, letters, and eyewitness accountsAkam follows the chain of events leading up to the killing and then reconstructs its systematic orchestration by coordinated departments of the Ottoman state, the ruling political parties, and the military. He also probes the crucial question of how Turkey succeeded in evading responsibility, pointing to competing international interests in the region, the priorities of Turkish nationalists, and the international communitys inadequate attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice. As Turkey lobbies to enter the European Union, Akams work becomes ever more important and relevant. Beyond its timeliness, A Shameful Act is sure to take its lasting place as a classic and necessary work on the subject.
Customer Reviews:
Deliberately misguided.......2007-04-15
I have read the book thoroughly and found quite good in terms of the sources used and the consistency of the theme. However, I realized that the author deliberately does not touch some fields in order not to jeopardize his position among his Armenian employers. Firstly, He claims that the only thing Ottoman Armenians wanted was the Reforms; if the government had implemented the changes they agreed with Dashnak Party, It would have been no revolt whatsoever. He also claims that most of the revolts that took place in various towns in Anatolia were simply the resistance for the deportation decision. On the contrary, we clearly know that the motive was not a Reform demand. The motive was a demand that leads to and independent Armenian State within the Turkish territories. He also dismisses the Armenian terrorist activities within the empire in order not to justify the deportation. Fortunately, He tells every account about the wide support that was provided to the Russian army and Western powers by Armenians.
The other thing I have found quite interesting is that he hardly mentions how "genocide" took place. According to his writing, special organization was responsible for killing Armenians so Regular army was told not to interfere and most of the cases Armenians were massacred just out of the towns where they were living. That was it. How can you overlook something that is extremely important for your case even though telling every small political and administrative event that occurred during the period? I think if a court deals with this issue they have to find psychical evidence which is the bodies of 1.5 millions people across the country. Even if your family members were subjected a massacre, even other hundreds of other families claim to have been massacred. These do not prove that this was genocide as you can find similar stories on the other side.
I think the problem we have is that Armenian people are so convinced that genocide took place against them and we can change not their mind and we do not have to. But they have to accept that if injustice was done to them, Propaganda books or propagandists are not something that they can rely on. The truth is always exposed sooner or later. I would advise them (Armenia) to take Turkey to court, called International Justice Court, in Lahey in Switzerland to get a conviction and get on with their lives. That's why I do not find Armenians genuine on this subject. Why spent millions of dollars for propaganda and why not submit a petition to the Court.
Turkey is a beautiful country, big enough to embrace all kind of people and live in harmony as long as violence does not occur. When we look at the shore lines throughout Turkey we can easily claim that hundreds of thousands of people who originally were born outside of Turkey live in a peaceful environment which I envy as a person who live outside of Turkey.
Thanks for readin my opinions
An important work.......2007-02-19
This important work by a Turkish scholar and dissident examined not every detail of the genocide but the question of Ottoman policy and the Turkish regime's responsibility. The first third of the book examines the Ottoman policy towards minorities and the way in which Islam was blended into Turkish nationalism.
The second third of the book examines Turkish policy and culpability during the war and the genocide that stretched from 1915 through to 1921. The book establishes the fact that the Ottoman-Turkish state was responsible for planning the genocide, that they were not just 'local massacres' or an outcome of 'war' and 'chaos'. This is important for it lays the groundwork for the last portion of the book which examines attempts by the allied powers to bring the genocidaires to justice.
The last portion examines Kemal Ataturk and his post-war regime and its role in resolving issues of genocide and justice. In the end the Turkish state denied the genocide and not only that but worked hard to cleanse all the other minorities include the Greeks, the Pontic Greeks, the Assyrians and the Jacobites, along with the Kurds.
This is an important book and the author makes many important incisive comments and observations not found elsewhere.
Seth J. Frantzman
"What ever happened to Anatolia?".......2007-01-29
"A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility", Tanner Akcam, NY, Metropolitan Books, 2006. ISBN 10:0-8050-7932-7, HC, 376 pg., plus Preface 13 pg., Notes 88 pg., & an Index 17 pg.; 9 1/2" x 6 1/2". A 3rd book by Turk sociologist/historian translated by Paul Bessemer in 1999.
Akcam details the rise & fall of the Ottoman Empire, its racial, ethnic & religious makeup, & how, during its decline, Turkish Nationalism developed under "CUP" & of principals involved. It unfolds ghastly details of the Ottoman Empire's annihilation of the non-Muslims, largely Christian Armenians, but also Greeks & Kurds, etc. Its proclammatory targeted deporatations included use of the Baghdad to Berlin railway, death marches, mass shootings & beatins & drownings, & starvation. It details Allied Powers' secret pacts to divide up the Ottoman Empire to control trade in the Black & Meditterranean Seas via the Dardenelles. It concludes with attempts to formalize trials against officials who had contrived the Armenian Genocides (AG) & describes various obstacles & finals outcomes with amnesty for the majority. A triumvirate of "Young Turks, namely - Talat Pasha, Enver Pasha, Cemel Pasha & their ideologue Gokalp promoting "Turkification is nicely outlined.
Interestingly, I found no devices, events or acts Adolf Hitler used in his quest for a "final solution" that had not been used a decade earlier by these Turkish Muslims, & this includes concentration & work camps, pillaging, rape, tortures, mass drownings, digging one's own grave, & starvation. Hitler was a copy cat in his genocide, devising nothing new save a numbering system.
The read is good, at times tedious, but at all times explaining the complexity of the AG. Resolution of some unsettled goings on will never occur as the unfolding of this history is truly enigmatically complex, full of disingenuous conspiracies but demonstrates the pressing need to prosecute those guilty of crimes against humanity, i.e. the genocide & gendercides. Turkey steadfastly denies the AG, but it also had changed their official language C. 1922 so original records are largely confined to scholars. I believe the book is the most accurate accounting of the AG written to date.
Vital for understanding causes of the Armenian Genocide.......2007-01-10
In this important book the pioneering Turkish historian Taner Akcam makes his work on the causes of the Armenian Genocide available to those who do not speak German, the language of his most important previous book on the subject. Akcam, who for years has worked in Germany as well as more recently in the United States, is especially strong in explaining how Turkish nationalism grew increasingly radical before and during the First World War. This is a very important contribution to the growing literature on the subject, including Donald Bloxham's The Great Game of Genocide. A number of recent books such as Benjamin Lieberman's Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe, Michael Mann's Dark Side of Democracy, and Norman Naimark's Fires of Hatred, provide comparative discussion of the Armenian Genocide.
In his discussion of causes and consequences of genocide Akcam takes a somewhat similar chronological approch to Vahakn Dadrian, but this is still not exactly a comprehensive history of the subject. Peter Balakian's Burning Tigris is very good on American responses, but the world still awaits the first truly comprehensive and authoritative history of the Armenian Genocide.
first genocide of the 20th century.......2007-01-09
He has made a good start. I applaud Professor Akcam's revealing and objective look at one of the worst acts of outrage against humanity of the 20th century. Certainly the Armenian people bore the brunt of the inspeakable acts of violence directed against them by inhuman hordes of Turks who burning raping and pillaging. Unfortunately he leaves out the mass killing fields covered covered with the dust of hundreds of thousands of Greek and Assyrian Christians who predated the Muslim Turks by thousands of years.
I wish I could be hopeful for the day when Turks can face up to their dismal and violent past. I do not hold much hope of that as long as islam is the ideology of choice for them.
Book Description
This intense, vivid report and call to action from the heart of violent Darfur, by a former Marine working as an unarmed military observer for the African Union, is a powerful memoir of a young man's awakening to conscience and the first extensive on-theground account of the genocide in Sudan.
Former United States Marine Brian Steidle served for six months in Darfur as an unarmed military observer for the African Union. There he witnessed first-hand the ongoing genocide, and documented every day of his experience using email, audio journals, notebook after notebook and nearly 1,000 photographs. Gretchen Steidle Wallace, his sister, who wrote this book with Brian, corresponded with him throughout his time in Darfur. Fired upon, taken hostage, a witness to villages destroyed and people killed, frustrated by his mission's limitations and the international community's reluctance to intervene, Steidle resigned and has since become an advocate for the world to step in and stop this genocide.
The Devil Came on Horseback depicts the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens, the maddening complexity of international inaction in response to blatant genocide, and the awkward, yet heroic transformation of a former Marine turned humanitarian. It is a gripping and moving memoir that bears witness to atrocities we have too long averted our eyes from, and reveals that the actions of just one committed person have the power to change the world.
Customer Reviews:
"welcome to hell".......2007-09-14
After four years as a captain in the Marines, in September 2004 Brian Steidle moved to Darfur, in western Sudan, where he joined an international team from the African Union to monitor the unfolding tragedy "where Arab Muslims kill African Muslims because the Africans are 'too black.'" Their team was unarmed and officially impartial to all sides; their duty was to "observe, inquire, and write reports," although by the end of his stint Steidle realized that of the 80 reports his team wrote only four reached the American Embassy by normal channels. When he left six months later he had assembled a comprehensive documentation of the Darfur genocide, including a photo archive of 3,000 pictures (twenty of which are included in the book), an audio journal he made on an MP3 player, personal notes, emails, and intelligence collected from some 30 NGOs.
Steidle's book is his eyewitness account of the horrors he documented on a daily basis-- children who had been shackled together, raped, and then burned alive; gang rape of women and girls of all ages; grotesque dismemberment of victims; the total burning of dozens of villages; the bull-dozing of camps for internally displaced victims; starvation; mass graves; jets and helicopter gunships slaughtering civilians; and endless cases of pillage and plunder. "Welcome to hell," one of his colleagues said when he first arrived. Estimates vary, but about 300-500,000 black African Muslims have been killed by the Sudan government (both army and police) and the janjaweed militia (literally "devil on a horse") that they have funded, trained (complete with graduation exercises), armed, and closely collaborated with in attacks. Another 2-3 million have been internally displaced. One of the most chilling pieces of evidence in his book, if anyone needed more evidence, is a government document specifying the steps they were taking to execute an official policy of ethnic cleansing. Most disheartening of all, Steidle understood that the Sudanese government knew that it could continue the genocide unabated because the international community would do nothing at all. Violence has spilled over into neighboring Chad and also threatened NGO and humanitarian workers. In addition to his book, Steidle has made a film that was released in the summer of 2007 (see www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com).
Open your eyes and raise your voices.......2007-09-10
Last night I saw the film `The Devil Came On Horseback'. Through the efforts of Brian and Gretchen Steidle, I was able to sweat in the baking sun and travel the raw dirt roads of Africa to bear witness to outrageously evil and willful acts of violence. I was also able to sit and sob with the victims of these horrendous acts - those who had lost their homes, their families and some their very flesh during this still ongoing genocide in Darfur. I was given the opportunity to see their beautiful souls as well as their great and dire need. To say that `The Devil Came On Horseback' was a wonderful and awe-inspiring film may sound strange. But as I watched the stories of individual survivors and the atrocities they had suffered, I felt my own sleeping spirit rise and a deep desire to help these people with whom I now felt so connected. I felt alive and blessed, strong and powerful and more fully awake than I had in years. Ironically, I am able to empathize with some of the individuals in the film. I believe we all have faced tragedy and loss in our lives. We all have scars from our personal battles - we have all felt alone and scared. The people of Darfur are right now fighting for their very existence. Why? Because they had the audacity to be born on a particular piece of land that some insane people think they should own exclusively? And doesn't this all sound awfully familiar? Haven't we seen these same hideous events way too many times in the past? Did you have the nerve to be born brown or Jewish or female? We are born into our various shapes, colors and beliefs. We are all different and yet so very much the same. We cannot be silent and accept the torture and murder of our fellow humans. We must tell all those who seek to harm others and specifically now those committing genocide in Darfur - WE SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND IT IS NOT OKAY. YOU WILL STOP AND YOU WILL PAY. Please help open the eyes and raise the voices of everyone you know.
Hate to disagree but..........2007-08-16
While the topic is an absolute shocker and eye-opener for anyone, the book fails to deliver. I picked up the book to understand the conflict in Darfur. The book was more like a journal and I felt I was reading the same chapter over and over. I was looking for a better understanding of the steps that were taken to stop the conflict, the hurdles and the blockades. But I couldn't get that from this book. Probably has to do with the frustration I went through after chapter after chapter giving the brutality of the killings but The AU's lack of showing absolutely any progress than just making reports and taking pictures. Captain Brian has done a good job documenting all his research and findings but in my opinion this book is a very tunnel-eyed view of the conflict.
A Compelling Must Read.......2007-08-07
Of the many books written on Darfur, none is as compelling as Brian Steidle's book and video of the same name, THE DEVIL CAM ON HORSEBACK.
He does not pull punches. He makes you feel the suffering of the Darfur people and his own justified anger at a world that is doing precious little to stop this genocide. It is a book bravely written.
Highly recommended.......2007-06-06
I just got The Devil Came on Horseback, Bearing witness to the genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace.
OH MY GAWD!!!
I read an article in the Calendar section about a documentary that was playing in Laemmle theaters either based on this book, or based on the same experiences that the book is based on. I followed a link or two on the internet and found this book. Basically, the author was assigned to Darfur to monitor a cease fire, and to document any violations (which were apparently rampant). I'm only 19 pages into the book so far, and
OH MY GAWD!!!
Well it's eye-opening. I've been listening to the news about Darfur, and was curious to know about what is behind the conflict (or who more particularly), and why is it persisting. I thought a first-hand account of someone who was actually there would be the best way to find out.
I have to give you a little snippet here that evoked the most emotion from me so far:
As far as I could tell, for women life was extremely difficult. Sudan was primarily a patriarchal society, yet the women were the laborers. They might walk five or six hours with huge bundles of firewood or five-gallon buckets on their heads to collect their daily water. Girls could be sold by their fathers into marriage for as little as two cows--roughly $400--and human trafficking was not uncommon. Women were stoned to death in some places if they cheated on their husbands, but men were legally allowed to take up to four wives. In almost all circumstances, men would not even stand next to a woman. The men would sit, and the women would stand behind them. I had heard that approsimately 90 percent of Sudanese women still undergo female genital mutilation, and I learned that there are two methods. The first removes only the clitoris, but the second procedure involves sewing the vagina closed, often using thorns.
I have certainly heard about the first form of mutilation, but not the second. I just think it is something no human should have to experience. And then a little later on the next page there is this little tidbit, "... there was a broadly believed myth that having sex with a virgin would cure you of AIDS." My goodness. No wonder AIDS is such an epidemic! Confronted with the same risks, I might want to sew up my vagina too. But I suppose it doesn't really stop the rapes.
I remember in school learning about things like the Holocaust and thinking, "Those were the olden days. The world is civilized now." Naive doesn't even begin to cover it.
No, I think atrocities like these will never really end unless and until we can confront the evils within ourselves. What can lead a human to do to another human such inhumane things?
Average customer rating:
- very disappointing
- Courtesy of Teens Read Too
- Touching Story
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Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You
Hanna Jansen , and
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ASIN: 1575059274 |
Customer Reviews:
very disappointing.......2007-09-28
In all honesty, I was rather disappointed with this one. The story is that of Jeanne, a survivor of the mass genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Now living with a foster family in Germany, Jeanne told her story to her new mother, who in turn put the words on paper. It's not that the story itself isn't good, because it is...what that poor child went through is inconceivable to most. I was interested in the story line, but the way it was narrated bothered me.
First of all, at the start of every chapter, the foster mother/author, Hanna Jansen writes a page or two. Usually some sort of anecdote, or a story of some sort. Which is all fine and good, but lady, I didn't buy the book to read what you think. Were you in Rwanda running for your life? Didn't think so. So shush and let the girl tell her story. It frustrated me.
My second complaint is the overall language used in the book. There's no way that those words came out of a teenagers mouth. Sorry, but it feels to me like Jansen edited and embellished where she saw fit. Maybe something got lost in the translation and its not Jansen's fault at all, I don't know. Regardless, it irriated me.
The book has so much potential. I was so excited to read it when I picked it up, but seriously folks, it was a disappointing one.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-02-12
OVER A THOUSAND HILLS I WALK WITH YOU is the horrifying novel that is based on a true story about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. This was a subject that I didn't know too much about until I read this book, which made me realize how horrible events such as this one are still happening in today's society. How we could let this happen is beyond me.
The book is written by the adoptive mother of Jeanne to tell the story that is often called the modern day Holocaust. As with the original Holocaust, many children were left to fight for themselves and try and find a new way to survive. Jeanne's family is killed and she is left to fend for herself, and the book is about how she achieves that.
When you read this book you aren't on the basic level of thinking. You are much beyond that. The imagery in this book is not good, because in no way do you want this to happen to anyone, but at the same time it's very real. I felt as if I were standing the fields and forests and homes of these people and was surrounded by people fighting for their lives.
Reviewed by: Taylor Rector
Touching Story.......2006-08-02
Hanna Jansen's OVER A THOUSAND HILLS I WALK WITH YOU is a touching tribute to her adopted daughter who was orphaned in the Rwandan war. Based on her daughter's recollections of her childhood--memories both pleasant and bittersweet--Jansen weaves a tale of sorrow, hope, fear, joy, and love. For example, the early chapters of the book feature a young girl living life large. She is visiting her grandmother. She's playing with her cousins. She's fighting with her sister and brother. Her mom works outside the home, her dad is away a lot...and she has an incredibly whiny sister that she struggles with on a daily basis. She's vibrant and unaware that her world would change in just a few short years. Later chapters reveal the pain, the loss, the confusion, the fear of not knowing if one is going to survive another day. Witnessing such atrocities as seeing your parents and siblings killed by strange soldiers. Seeking help from family friends, yet being turned away because they don't want to risk dying too. Her survival story is inspiring.
The story is beautifully told, Jansen has done a great job here. Her book is definitely worth reading.
Book Description
This book is a unique account of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Rwanda in the mid 1990s. Shaharyar M. Khan's tenure began in the immediate aftermath of the downing of President Habarimana's plane on April 6, 1994 and the massacres that followed. Khan details his encounters with soldiers and politicians, victims and survivors, perpetrators of the massacres, and humanitarian relief efforts. This book reveals how the UN works on the ground and at headquarters. AUTHORBIO: SHAHARYAR M. KHAN is a distinguished international diplomat and currently Pakistan's Ambassador to France.
Customer Reviews:
"Another Failed Mission of the U.N.".......2007-03-09
"The Shallow Graves of Rwanda", Shaharyar Khan, 2000, I.B. Tauris, London, ISBN: 1-86064-616-6, HC 228 pgs., includes 1 map, 2 pgs. Acronyms, 16 Illust., 1 pg. Biblio., 8 pg. Index. 9 1/2" x 6 1/4"
Khan, retired Pakastani Muslim career deplomat, was give "onerous responsibility" to seek a peaceful settlement in Rwanda as Special Representative of UN Secretary-General after Tutsi Pres. Habyarimana's plane was shot down April 6, 1994. Arriving 3 mos. later, on July 4, 1994, the author learns a civil war &/or genocide had occurred with about 800,000-1,000,000 Rwandan's massacred, largely by Hutu majority wielding machetes in a planned mass-killing of the Tutsi minority. For reader's not familiar with Rwanda, the country is one of the smallest of the smallest countries in the world, less than the size of a small pea on a full Atlas-sized map page of Africa - it is surrounded on the W-N-E-S by Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania & Burundi.
Despite author's claim of his book as a diary, it is nothing of the sorts. He gives a brief synopsis of Rwandan's clash arising in the 1930's from colonists imposing Western values, intra-ethnic tensions, over-population, & that docile compliant mind-set of Rwandan peoples who are silently obedient to any authority. This is bizzare when put in context of the brutal killings which were barbaric, revengeful, & savagely carried out on men, Women, & children left to die slowly by hemorrhage, evisceration, limblessness, genitalia excisions, head bashings or smaller victims tossed into urinal pits to drown or suffocate in feces. It transcends by far anything reported in the Holocaust or Armenian Genocide.
The Author provides a list of 47 acronyms to distinguish & represent various Worldly, African, or United Nation offices, programs, organizations, plans, committees, missions, departments, coalitions, forces, etc. which are supposed to have helped Rwanda, but are herein documented to have been uniformly counter-productive, adversarial, overlapping & heavily endowed groups which spent millions if not billions of dollars in observing the situation, but not even pennies for rebuilding as roads, electric power, communications, etc. The author, despite his "onerous responsibility" was shown to have absolutely no power, & though he ussued decrees, demands, resolutions. suggestioons & reports, he discovered that no one really listened to him, or if they pretended to do so they readily changde their minds. We are informed that various organizations which should have been involved in peaceful measures were actually involved in the illegal & irrational importing of land mines, grenades, pistols, ammo & automatic weapons from Italy, Israel, Egypt, China, etc., instead of aid supplies.
We are informed about the insurgent military groups, RGF (Hutu) vs. the RPA (Tutsi) lead by 37-yr-old Tutsi leader Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame who quickly advanced from VP to Pres. of Rwanda. He was recently accused by French Magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere (Feb. 2007) as ordering the assassinations of April 6, 1944 & it was also alleged the U.S. and the U.N. quashed earlier inquiries since Paul Kagama was an ally of the U.S.
So, all in all, the book is not what it purports to be, is poorly written & poorly cllated,& it is highly repetitive of the miserable accountings of beastly killings that had already occurred before the impotent author had set foot in Kigali. If there was a "fall guy" for the U.N., it was the author. It is not a book about the Rwanda genocide, it is a book about power, politics, & money.
A first class case study of a UN operation.......2001-03-25
Although not quite perfect in its smallest detail, this is the most authoritative analysis yet available of the aid that the UN and the international community tried to provide to Rwanda after the genocide of 1994, concentrating on the period from the author's arrival in June of that year and tending to discuss UNAMIR's work at the operational rather than the tactical level - although it does cover, with dispassion and objectivity rather than overt emotion, a number of individual horror stories.
This must be regarded as a classic case study and, as one who worked under Ambassador Khan in Rwanda, I recommend it without reservation for students of the United Nations, those obliged to deal with this and other international organizations and, especially, those considering their resourcing.
The areas in which I would wish to assist Khan were he to revise his text for a future edition are: definition of the boundaries between Operation Homeward (which escapes mention under this name) and Operation Retour, and to give due credit due to Lt Col Tom Mullarkey for his formulation of Retour; Operation Hope and its role in the chronology of UNAMIR-RPF relations; Khan's somewhat rose-tinted view of UNAMIR's discipline and performance; and the captions of some photographs (Plate 5 is not of the medical centre in Kibeho but of a church somewhere else; Plate 6 is misdated - and definitely not of a scene in 1943; Plate 7 is of Kigali Prison rather than of Gikongoro's); amongst a full and mostly accurate coverage of the tragedy in Kibeho, correction of some minor flaws in the attribution of witness testimony.
In identifying these errors, this is not to say that I think this a poor book: I think it quite the opposite and believe that it deserves to be read very widely!
Book Description
In mid-2004 the Darfur crisis in Western Sudan forced itself onto the center stage of world affairs. Arab Janjaweed militias, who support the Khartoum government, have engaged in a campaign of violence against the residents of Western Sudan. A formerly obscure `tribal conflict' in the heart of Africa has escalated into the first genocide of the twenty-first century. In sharp contrast to official reaction to the Rwandan massacres, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the situation in Darfur a "genocide" in September 2004. Its characteristics-Arabism, Islamism, famine as a weapon of war, mass rape, international obfuscation, and a refusal to look evil squarely in the face-reflect many of the problems of the global South in general and of Africa in particular.
Journalistic explanations of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe have been given to hurried generalizations and inaccuracies: the genocide has been portrayed as an ethnic clash marked by Arab-on-African violence, with the Janjaweed militias under strict government control, but neither of these impressions is strictly true. Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide explains what lies behind the conflict, how it came about, why it should not be oversimplified, and why it is so relevant to the future of the continent.
Gérard Prunier sets out the ethnopolitical makeup of the Sudan and explains why the Darfur rebellion is regarded as a key threat to Arab power in the country—much more so than secessionism in the Christian South. This, he argues, accounts for the government's deployment of "exemplary violence" by the Janjaweed militias in order to intimidate other African Muslims into subservience. As the world watches; governments decide if, when, and how to intervene; and international organizations struggle to distribute aid, the knowledge in Prunier's book will provide crucial assistance.
Customer Reviews:
Clarity Triumphs Over Cliche.......2007-08-05
If you will read just one book about Darfur, I can't imagine a better choice. Nothing else I've read so deftly sorts through Darfur's complex history, making clear how geographic, economic, social and political strands of the region's past made it vulnerable to the crimes perpetrated there. Prunier takes a seemingly incomprehensible story and makes it almost perfectly comprehensible. Prunier shatters all the myths and cliches that pervade media accounts of the conflict and so vex critical thinkers, who know that it can't be that simple- that there is more and at the same time, less to the story. His analysis of the Sudan's history is concise, compelling and dead on. Moreover, though the North-South war which raged for over 40 years is not the book's focus, he brilliantly analyzes how that struggle relates directly to Darfur. Chillingly, he explains how, for the Khartoum government, its actions ( and inactions ) in Darfur are perfectly logical and, from their perspective, quite effective. As one reads Prunier, he can imagine how readers years ago must have been sickened and yet, oddly "reassured "( I can't find the right word ) when they realized that the Holocaust was explainable. I say this not to compare Darfur to the Holocaust. Prunier doesn't do that either. What I refer to is the provision of explanation for events so mind-bogglingly horrible that one wants to grasp the causes, yet fears that this can't be done. If you are compelled to understand the historical roots of this horror, order Prunier now.
Poor Editing Harms Presentation.......2007-07-27
I'm not an expert on Darfur nor do I spend much time reading about Aftrican politics. I came to this book in the hopes of understanding the Darfur crisis better. Parts of this book are excellent, but the poor editing and confused chronology for the updated section at the end nearly make the book useless for the uninformed reader. The first section on historical background is fascinating and for the most part clearly written, although it would have been useful to offer a clearer chronology of events in Chad, which have an important impact on Darfur.
Unfortunately, the editors did not take the time to correct numerous spelling, syntax and grammatical errors that existed in the 2005 version. I'm not a good copy editor with my own work, but these errors were so numerous and obvious as to be a bit disheartening.
But this is a mere annoyance compared to the confusing additional text added in this "revised" edition. (1) The glossary of Arabic terms is useful, but incomplete. (2) The list of abbreviations is incomplete, and quite often the abbreviations are not even spelled out with their first use. Try to figure out what AMIS stands for. (3) There are numerous mistakes and inconsistencies in the use of abbreviations. On page 161 the Common Peace Agreement (CPA), which one does not find in the list of abbreviations, is misspelled as DPA! Or does the author mean the DPA, another unlisted acronym?! Try sorting this out as a non-specialist. The author switches randomly between the use of the abbreviation SLA and SLM for a key rebel group - it's the same group, but again very confusing. I was only able to understand this based upon other outside reading. No explanation is given in the text.
Finally, the constant temporal shifts that occur in the "new and revised text," which should take the reader through 2005 and 2006 is almost on the edge of being useless, unless the reader is so familiar with the material that the reader can sort out the confusion. Read the final pages and tell me, if you can, when the DPA, another abbreviation not listed at the front, was signed, in 2005 or 2006? You'll have to look elsewhere for the answer to this important and basic question.
The editors of the Cornell University Press series Crises in World Politics, have done much better elsewhere with "Peace at Any Price - How the World Failed Kosovo," a far superior work on a similar topic. This book does not live up to that standard. - Mark A. Wolfgram
"...simple killing is boring, especially in Africa,".......2007-04-17
writes author and "renowned analyst of East Africa, the Horn, Sudan, and the Great Lakes of Africa," Gérard Prunier in his explanation (Pp 155, 156) of why he believes that the situation in Darfur does not qualify as genocide - (because there was not an attempt to "destroy a racially, religiously, or politically predefined group in its entirety,") although he admits that it actually makes no difference how exactly it is defined. His explanation of this one point is clear; however, the rest of the book is extremely difficult to follow due to its concise, complex, research paper-like style. In the first paragraph, he states that the introductory chapter, "...aims at giving...an overview to enable the non-specialist reader to grasp the context in which the crisis developed." That may be the case, but this reader felt only minimally enlightened on the subject of Darfur after having read Chapter 1 (twice), and the remaining five, even having taken notes along the way. Prunier's attempt to explain the situation in Darfur to everyman types is no better than that of Julie Flint and Alex de Waal in their Darfur: A Short History of a Long War - an equally tough read.
Two lies and two truths.......2007-02-10
This book makes to bold faced lies. First it claims the British governate of the Sudan tried to keep the people 'stupid' and underdeveloped. This is a blatent lie. The British administration was the one that outlawed slavery and the one that rolled back a thousand years of Arab-white Islamic colonialism and freed the African people of Sudan from bondage. The second major lie of this work is that the genocide supposedly comes out of a mere 'competition' for resources. This is like saying all genocides are just about 'resources' a typical marxist intepretation that is short sighted and wrong. The fact is that white Muslim Arab slavers dominated and colonized Sudan and through many 'jihads' extended their influence deep into Africa, destroying and depopulating part of the continent. These people were angry when the Africans, their Libyan supporters and earlier the British had encouraed the African Blacks to think of themselves as people and not the inherent property of Arabs from Saudi Arabia who dealt in them as they dealt in oil. Even Bin Laden owned black slaves in Sudan. When the Blacks revlted against the racist aparthied government in khartoum the government responded with genocide.
This book is the typical 'economics is everything' drivle. It should be commended for at least calling what is happening 'genocide' but it points to all the wrong causes and reasons. The difference between genocide and conflict is that one is race and hate based and this is what has taken place in Sudan.
Seth J. Frantzman
Comprehensive and Eye-Opening work.......2007-01-27
As Yehudit Ronen stated, Prunier rightly labels the response of the international community to the atrocities in Darfur, a "regression of civilization," a description he convincingly argues for in this comprehensive and eye-opening work. In it, he analyzes the historical roots of the conflict in Sudan's western region and discusses why international efforts to halt the tragedy in Darfur have been so impotent.
Prunier takes the reader to the early history of Darfur as an independent sultanate and relates the human movement into the region of people who now constitute Darfur's diverse ethnic makeup. He details the subsequent annexation of Darfur to Sudan and shows how British benign neglect toward the region began an important trend that endured in the era of independence. Prunier surveys the frustration of democratic politics in Darfur and the devastating famine of the mid-1980s in which about 100,000 people died. He addresses the Libyan interference in Darfur to promote Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's war in Chad. This, he explains, was a critical cause in pitting the Darfurian "Arab" ethnic groups ("tribes" in Prunier's parlance) against their "African," Muslim co-religionists. It was during the chaotic circumstances in the region between 1985 and 1988, Prunier explains, that the pattern of Arab militia attacks on African villages was first established, and atrocities similar in manner, although not in scale, were perpetrated by the dreaded Janjaweed, the "evil horsemen."
Prunier describes how the cynical opportunism of Hasan Abdallah al-Turabi, the Arab Islamist who had led Sudan jointly with Omar al-Bashir after 1989, further fuelled the combustible components of the Darfurian reality. Turabi's political machinations aimed at removing Bashir from power and gaining sole leadership of the country. The catastrophic results of this power struggle, won by Bashir, would be played out on the backs of the Darfurians and Sudanese society as a whole.
At times bitter, at times scornful, Prunier illustrates the neglect of the international media in bringing the crisis to world attention, largely because of the lack of a catchy angle for another African horror story. Prunier states that the international community also paid little attention to the Darfurian violence due to a combination of reasons, among them the overwhelming desire to finally solve the preexisting Sudanese civil war in the south, the U.S. preoccupation with the insurgency in Iraq, and Khartoum's cooperation in Washington's war on terror. Darfur was thus given a backseat in international priorities as the Janjaweed murdered, pillaged, burned, and raped their way through the region.
While not discussing in depth the socioeconomic problems of Sudan--problems crucial in the ignition of the Darfur fire--Prunier contends that it was notions of race in Darfur that led to the horrors there. Despite the ethnic mixing in the region and the blurred racial lines between Africans and Arabs, this distinction was superimposed on the varied ethnic groups of the region, then exploited by the ruling Arab elite in Khartoum. The possibility of a racial alliance between the Darfurian rebels and their southern "brothers" terrified these rulers. Prunier claims that the killing in Darfur should not be seen as genocide, since the aims of the Sudanese government were not to eradicate a people but rather to carry out the brutal suppression of what was seen as an existential threat. Whatever term one uses, however, the carnage and misery unleashed by Khartoum and its Janjaweed cohorts remains just as horrific.
Book Description
From Hannah Arendt 's "banality of evil " to Joseph Conrad 's "fascination of the abomination, " humankind has struggled to make sense of human-upon-human violence. Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology is the only book of its kind available: a single volume exploration of social, literary, and philosophical theories of violence.Edited by two of anthropology 's most passionate voices on this subject, Violence in War and Peace is a sweeping collection that looks at various concepts and modes of violence. Drawing from a remarkable range of sources, the editors juxtapose the routine violence of everyday life---what scholars Taussig and Benjamin have termed "terror as usual "---against the sudden outcropping of unexpected, extraordinary violence such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the state violence of Argentina 's Dirty War, revolution, vigilante "justice, " and organized criminal violence. Despite the impulse to distance ourselves from such acts, Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois take care to remind us that concepts of violence and aggression have often failed to acknowledge symbolic and structural forms. Yet, the most violent acts often involve conduct that is socially permitted---even encouraged---rather than condemned as deviant. In Violence in War and Peace, the editors offer a thought-provoking tool for students and thinkers from all walks of life: an exploration of violence at the broadest levels: personal, social, and political.
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