Book Description
This comprehensive study of international ethnic cleansing provides in-depth coverage of its occurrences in Armenia, Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, as well as cases of lesser violence in early modern Europe and in contemporary India and Indonesia. After presenting a general theory of why serious conflict emerges and how it escalates into mass murder, Michael Mann offers suggestions on how to avoid such escalation in the future. Michael Mann is the author of Fascists (Cambridge, 2004) and The Sources of Social Power (Cambridge 1986).
Customer Reviews:
Case Unproven.......2005-05-07
The great merit of this somber book is that it matter-of-factly includes the Armenian genocide along with the Holocaust as the two most important case studies that Mann examines. The two cases are linked by more than Hitler's infamous remark just before launching Operation Barbarossa "Who now speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?" The Turkish genocide of the Armenians was also perpetuated by the leadership of a modernizing State, in the context of war, using its organizational and administrative resources to their fullest capacities in an attempt to murder as many members of an entire people as possible. For some reason, it does not sit well with many Holocaust scholars to refer to the tragic pioneering suffering of the Armenians at the hands of the Turks and their allies as genocide, but that was what it was. Mann acknowledges the similarities between the Armenian and Jewish experiences in this book, although he does not demonstrate particular insight into the events that produced the Armenian genocide. Nevertheless, in the prevailing climate of intellectual opinion, which forbids scholarly reference to the mass murders of the Armenians as a genocide, Mann's book constitutes a long step in the right direction.
Mann's two main theses are (1) that ethnic cleansing and genocide are, as his title indicates, "the dark side of democracy", and (2) that genocide and ethnic cleansing often develop their full-blown features as a series of immediate "solutions" to perceived obstacles or frustrations, they are not meticulously planned in advance with their ultimate goal clearly in view.
Despite the scholarly introductory chapter with its elaborate chart depicting Mann's theses (down to parts 4a, 4b, 5, etc.), Mann utterly fails to demonstrate the validity of his first thesis. On the face of it, the fact that his two principle examples, the Armenian and Jewish genocides, were perpetrated by Turks and Germans acting in the context of authoritarian dictatorships makes his case difficult to prove. While there is something in the idea that democracy can be confused with ethnicity, Mann can only show that this factor is at best a contributing one. Readers looking for a jaundiced view of the cruelty of which democracies are capable should read Jacob Burckhardt's THE GREEKS AND GREEK CIVILISATION; this book is the English translation of university lectures that poisoned at least two generations of Germans against the idea of liberal democracy, with catastrophic consequences. The German experience shows just how dangerous Mann's project really is. To say that ethnic cleansing is the "dark side" of democracy is a powerful indictment of democracy, and, given that he doesn't prove his thesis, Mann appears to have brought the charge recklessly. Hopefully, his book will have little of the influence on English-speaking readers that Burckhardt's did on German-speaking readers.
Mann does succeed in demonstrating his second main thesis which, if widely accepted, provides a framework in which policy tools can begin to be developed to try and prevent future genocides. Of course, the classic statement of this thesis was Arno Mayer's WHY DID THE HEAVENS NOT DARKEN? This great book was heavily criticized by some Holocaust scholars who thought that they saw an exculpatory element in Mayer's assertion that the killing of 6 million Jews was not planned by the Nazis from the very beginning. As a matter of fact, both Mayer and Mann show amply that the "contingent" and evolving nature of most genocide is as evil and cruel a human activity as it is possible to imagine. There is no point scanning the horizon for a government busy creating a fully articulated vision of extermination, because that's not how genocide develops. And for pointing to that truth, this book, for all its flaws, is worth a read by those seeking to understand this grim subject.
Fair book, interesting thesis, but read his "Fascists" first.......2005-05-05
I liked this book, and found it to be a nice companion piece to Mann's book on fascists. In fact, I would say these two books are really best seen as two volumes of a single work on the forces that create and sustain organic nationalism, and then propel it down the path of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Is this specific work and the larger treatise on organic nationalism flawed? Yes, of course, every scholarly work is inherently flawed and incomplete -- experts on genocide will no doubt nit-pick his details here. But taken together Mann presents two works that are fairly compelling.
What I did find valuable in this book, however, is his argument that ethnic cleansing is the "dark side" of democracy. What does he mean by this? He states it pretty unequivocally on page 2:
"Let me make clear at the outset that I do not claim that democracies routinely commit murderous cleansing. Very few have done so. Nor do I reject democracy as an ideal - I endorse that ideal. Yet democracy has always carried with it the possibility that the majority might tyrannize minorities, and this possibility carries more ominous consequences in certain types of multiethnic environments."
Thus, Mann maintains that genocidal, murderous cleansing is the "dark side" of democracy because before the modern conception of democracy emerged there was no "enemy of the people" that, potentially, needed to be totally exterminated. In times of great social stress the demos of democracy can be replaced by the ethnos - that "the people" can come to hold an organic nationalist meaning as opposed to the pluralist, atomized-individual meaning it holds in the US other liberal democracies. How and why do modernizing peoples choose the organic nationalist path as opposed to the liberal path? Read Mann's book on fascists to find out. When do organic nationalists decide on genocide as opposed to mere repression? Read this book to find out.
A more serious flaw, however, is the possibility that Mann's work will stop here and not continue on to focus on how the nation can be identified in terms of religion (as with modern Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East) or with class (as it was with communism). Mann has a short chapter on Communist cleansing of "class enemies" in the Dark Side of Democracy, but the subject could really be an entire volume in an of itself. He also deals somewhat perfunctorily with religious fundamentalism in Fascists, but in a dismissive manner that I think does a disservice to the importance of the subject.
Comes Up Short.......2005-03-24
Ethnic cleansing has been practiced by signers of the Atlantic Charter in the past and continues to be practiced by emerging democracies of today. A book addressing this issue is a welcome addition to the literature of the evolving history of human rights. Thus it is with great anticipation that I turned to the "Dark Side of Democracy". Unfortunately, the book falls awfully short of its promise. Its title is misleading and it contains a large number of misstatements of facts and factual errors and omissions.
Neither the Armenian Genocide, atrocities of the Nazis and Communists nor Rawanda have anything to do with democracy as is implied by the book's title.
Misstatements and distortions are too numerous to list, but here is a brief sampling:
On p. 301 the reader is told that "In 1946 a Hungarian court in Cluj (now Kolosvar)..."
The problems with the assertion are the following:
(1) in 1946 the town you call Cluj was known to the overwhelming part of its population as Kolozsvar. In fact, the Romanian authorities renamed Kolozsvar (note the misspelling in the book) to Cluj-Napoca in 1974.
(2) There did not exist a "Hungarian court" in Kolozsvar in 1946.
On p. 305 in the section describing Romania the statement is made "Wild deportation began of the 200,000 Transylvanian Jews, more than 20,000 gypsies..." R. Braham, the internationally recognized expert in the field, in the introduction to "Tragedy of Romanian Jewry", Columbia University Press, 1994 writes "Jews of Old Romania and Southern Transylvania fared even better. Although they were subjected to great economic hardship, ...they survived the war almost intact."
Descriptions of many events are incomplete. On p. 299 the reader is told about 3,300 civilians murdered in Voivodina by the Hungarian Army, but no mention is made of the terrorist activities preceeding these events. No mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian Army court martialed the officers responsible, the only instance where officers on the Axis side were held responsible for the killing of civilians, including Jews.
The book fails to mention that alone of the allies of Nazi Germany, Hungary despite German occupation at the time, used its troops to protect Jews from deportation. Horthy ordered the Hungarian First Armored Division to Budapest preventing the deportation of Jews, about to be carried out from the Hungarian capital, in June 1944.
It is remarkable that no mention is made of the murder of the estimated 30-40,000 Hungarian civilians by Tito's henchmen after the conclusion of the Second World War. Several books, some in English, exist on the subject.
The book fails to mention the infamous, racist Benes Decrees that was the basis of depriving the autochthonous Hungarian population, living on land that was part of Hungary for a millenium but assigned to Czechoslovakia, of property, citizenship and deporting countless to slave labor. Ethnic Germans did not fare any better. The New York Times reported that the family of former secretary of state M. Albright profited from the seizure of German owned property.
It is even stranger that the book makes scant mention of the estimated 2 million Germans who died as a result of ethnic cleansing of Germans from the East.
The sentence on p. 355 "Germans flocked peacefully home" is offensive and mockery of the facts. For example, ethnic Germans of Romania, who were not murdered or deported to the Soviet Union, were allowed to leave only after the German government paid a ransom. These people left behind all their properties, owned by their families for centuries, with scant compensation.
It is rather disturbing that the book on ethnic cleansing does not reference or mention two standards on the subject: "Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe", edited by S.B. Vardy and T.H Tooley, C.U. Press, 2003 and the A. M. de Zayas "Terrible Revenge", St. Martin's Press, 1994.
Sixty years after these terrible events the reader has a right to be told all that is known about these events and not an excerpt of some of the facts. That this is possible is shown by J. Faragher "A Great and Noble Scheme", Norton, 2005 retelling the expulsion of French Acadians from their homeland. The "Dark Side of Democracy" falls far short of these expectations.
Book Description
An account of one couple's life on a remote island beyond the Polar Front, a tale to rival the exploits of the great nineteenth-century explorers. After twenty-five years of cruising the world's oceans, renowned blue-water sailors Pauline and Tim Carr found themselves being drawn to the lonely places of the higher latitudes to experience earth's last, scarcely touched regions. Antarctic Oasis records the culmination of those exploits. True adventurers, the Carrs have lived year-round on South Georgia for five years--its only civilian inhabitants--experiencing a way of life that has all but vanished from our modern world. A center of the Norwegian whaling industry in the last century, today a remnant of the far-flung British Empire, South Georgia is a splendid if forbidding land of towering, glacier-clad mountains and a treacherous, storm-torn coast punctuated by sheltered bays. During its brief polar summer, the island's verdant shoreline offers Antarctic wildlife a place to feed, mate, and rear their young. The only humans on the scene, the Carrs have learned intimate details about the lives of whales, penguins, seals, albatrosses, skuas, and many others. In all seasons the Carrs explore South Georgia's uncompromising coast aboard their yacht Curlew. Their deep fascination with the island, its wildlife, and its history will stir the spirit of adventure and discovery in us all.
Customer Reviews:
Antarctic Adventure.......2006-07-01
Over 20,000 people a year go to Antarctica and only 5400 people went to South Georgia last year. I am going in November and feel this is probably the one book for people to read if they are going there. Everyone I have talked to that has gone to the Antarctic Circle says that South Georgia is a must. Read this book before you book your cruise and if it is in your budget add South Georgia. It is one of the great ecosystems of the world so if you have done Africa and the Galapagos or other A list eco-tours this book will probably convince you to add South Georgia.
Travelling to such an unreachable land.......2006-02-26
It is a wonderful collection of pictures taken by Tim and Pauline Carr, during their long stay in the South Georgia Island. Such remote and unreachable place for normal people as I am, but to dream with.... a land where the human touch almost changed the landscape, but where the nature took over, after the last whalers left the island, with the rebirth of a new natural chain.
5 Stars for the Colour Photography. Next best to going there.......1999-05-21
Fitting tribute to the sometimes threatened wildlife on this island - South Georgia. Apart from the stunning bird photographs with those amazing snow-capped peaks, there is the effusive commentary, emphasizing the natural moods of the place, with journeys by boat, hiking, on skis, explorations made more meaningful with some of the scientists from their bases. In fact the Carr's are the only permanent residents here, so taken with the wildness of the place, and actually run the Whaling museum. Not the least of characters is the famed one hundred year old Falmouth (England, UK) built cutter with whom we can share it's history in the final chapter of the book. This is no ordinary boat, not for all that the Carr's have taken her through these last 25 years. First hearing of the Carr's exploits in John Ridgeway's 'Then we sailed away', somehow the dangers of their journeys, although not exactly glossed over, are not depicted as felt experience as in the Ridgeway work, feeling more like the safe narrative encountered in a childrens' version of a day at sea. The reader is not aware of the friction and general mayhem that is so well recounted by John. Also there is no sense of the 'burden of the possession of mind', lonely outposts bringing on philosophical musings than is done here, unless of course they were were always an idyllically matched and happy couple. It is not that sort of book, rather allowing the displacement of humanity as much as possible in order to bring out into greatest relief, the exorbitant wildlife.
Impasioned account of the remote sub-antarctic.......1998-12-31
Having been to South Georgia and met the Carr's three years ago, I was very excited to see their marvelous habitat so poignantly displayed. It is a world of the crossroads of many ecologic niches, man's tenuous and not always synergistic intersection with it, and and an adventuresome couple's love for the land, sea, and animals. A bit more could have been said about Shackleton and his place in its history, but over-all highly recommended. It only enforced my desire to return.
RB Schoene Seattle, WA
A book for adventurers in body or spirit.......1998-10-11
Smitten by South Georgia after 20+ years of sailing the world in a 28' cutter, the Carrs have generously chosen to share the object of their affection through breathtaking photographs and charming text. The reader accompanies them as they explore the coastal bays, ski across glaciers, and wonder at being preened by an albatross. Holding this book in your hands is a reminder of the truth of the definition of work as "love made visible."
Amazon.com
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin found this slim 1955 novel on a shelf in the house of friends, and, struck with the "plain, succinct evocation and beauty" of Fred Bodsworth's writing, suggested its reissue to a publisher. This is a quick, elegant, devastating read. The Eskimo curlew was a species of shorebird that migrated (and perhaps, in extremely small numbers, still migrates) south from arctic Canada every fall, in a flight that took it eastward across Canada, and then, after feeding, south over the Atlantic to South America--this latter journey nearly 2,500 miles of nonstop flight. The curlew was almost unique among shorebirds for its ability to make this grueling passage.
Bodsworth, a respected ornithologist, makes us care about his fictional bird protagonist--a lone curlew in search of a mate--while still cautiously riding the line between description and anthropomorphism. Of his curlew preparing for a mate, he writes: "He waited within the borders of his territory, flying in tightening circles and calling excitedly as the other bird came nearer. The female was coming. The three empty summers that the male had waited vainly and alone on his breeding territory were a vague, tormenting memory, now almost lost in a brain so keenly keyed to instinctive responses that there was little capacity for conscious thought or memory."
The demise of this species at the hands of hunters and hungry consumers was so rapid and thorough that the "millions that darkened the sky" in Newfoundland in the 1870s during their annual migration were reduced to only a few lone fliers by the 1890s. An afterword by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann and line drawings by Abigail Rorer add context to this remarkable book. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
The Eskimo curlew, which once made its migration from Patagonia to the Arctic in flocks so dense that they darkened the sky, was brought to the verge of extinction by the wanton slaughter of game-hunters.
Following the doomed search of a solitary curlew for a female of its kind, Fred Bodsworth’s novel is a haunting indictment of man’s destruction of the natural world.
Customer Reviews:
Last of the Curlews.......2007-04-02
A sad story of human greed and destruction, but one we all should read and learn from.
There's Always Hope..........2003-11-16
This is a Classic and recognized as one of the finest Natural History books in North America as well as abroad.First published in 1955 it has been re-issued ,probably as many as 20 times over the years. Suffice it to say ,anyone with any interest in nature,birds, extinct species,conservation,preservation of species,would find this an excellent read.As a matter of fact,I would go so far as to suggest that after reading this book,one would probably agree it is the best natural history book they have ever read.Just look at the other reviews.
The main reason for my writing this review is to tell you that after reading 'The Last of the Curlews'you might want to read some of Bodsworth's other lesser known but also excellent works.
"The Strange One"
"The Sparrows Fall"
"The Atonement of Ashley Morden"
and,
"The Pacific Coast"
Another excellent thing about 'The Last of the Curlews' are the superb scratch board illustrations by T M Shortt,one of Canada's finest artists;so make sure they are in the edition you get.
With regards to my title...for several decades the search has continued without success.There have been a few reports of sightings,but none confirmed.There is a lot of territory in it's range,between the tip of South America and the Arctic Circle where there may be survivors...there's always hope.
I still see Fred on occasion;so let's hope we see another book from him soon.
A must read.......2003-06-11
This is a wonderful, heart-wrenching short book, a fictionalization of the migration of a lone Eskimo Curlew from the arctic to South America and back.
The Eskimo Curlew was once a plentiful shorebird that was highly sought after by hunters because of the succulence of its flesh and the ease with which it could be taken. Usually flying in dense swarms, a score or more birds could be brought down by a single shotgun blast. In some cases so many were killed, that the hunters left those that could not be transported to market in massive piles. And so it came to pass that by the late 19th-century, the Eskimo Curlew population declined rapidly, to the point where it was virtually extinct at the time Bodsworth wrote the book.
Although a work of fiction, this is a book that should be read by everyone who has an interest in Nature and the environment.
A Haunting Classic ...........2000-06-14
Bodsworth is brilliant in his capacity to provide the reader with an emotionally arrousing text, supported by fascinating technical details of bird migration. I cannot imagine that anyone having even a remote interest in birds, nature or life, would not be moved by this great piece.
It broke my heart........1999-10-08
I doubt anyone will ever see this review, but I thought I'd submit one anyway. Never have I experienced a book that so forced me to put it down every few pages, from its overwhelming sadness and beauty. Merwin, who championed this rare gem, once wrote: "If I were not human, I would have nothing to be ashamed of." Truly, this is the kind of reading experience that cuts to the core of our species' tragic history.
Average customer rating:
- A harsh, yet true, portayal of Australia's early years
|
Cry of the Curlew
Manufacturer: Pan Macmillan Australia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Similar Items:
-
To Chase the Storm
ASIN: 0330362046 |
Customer Reviews:
A harsh, yet true, portayal of Australia's early years.......2004-07-21
This book, plus the next two in the trilogy, are fantastic. They combine love, hate, betrayal and revenge in a story of two families that are linked by blood and circumstances that neither family can control. The strong links between Indigenous Australians and their spirituality was well researched and written, and it was good to read an accurate account of the mounted police and their duties, however disturbing most of it was. I highly recommend this trilogy by a very talented writer as I was left moved both as a reader and an Australian.
Book Description
The Curlew's Cry is the story of three decades in the life of Pamela Lacey and a Montana town. Descended from pioneers and the daughter of a rancher, Pamela lives according to her own script, and nothing seems to happen as expected. The world beats on—World War I, the influenza epidemic of 1917, the Great Depression—and local fortune rise and fall with the price of beef. For Pamela the fight that counts is defined by a sense of independence and pervasive loneliness, by the twists and turns of love and friendship.
Customer Reviews:
Learning what contentment is all about.......2006-02-01
Set mainly in Montana between 1905-41, Pam Lacey, a headstrong ranch girl, sets her sights on "bigger things" and mistakenly marries a rich boy from the East. It's a case of the grass not always being greener on the other side, and, swallowing her pride, she leaves her husband and returns home to Montana. She takes over her father's ranch and, to make money, turns it into a dude ranch (a new fangled idea at the time, and one which infuriates the old ranch hands). She ends up living a pretty lonely existence, especially in the winters when the "dudes" are all gone, but she also learns to be content. Although some of the novel is fairly predictable, Walker writes lovingly of the challenges of Montana ranch life (especially for a single woman) and the deep satisfactions that come with it.
Will Keep you up all night.......2001-05-29
Walker transports you to turn-of-the century ranching life, and the rise of the Western aristocracy. Deals with issues of town vs. country and Eastern establishment and Western individualism. Its a feminist look at social structure and conflict in Western America. A must read for wilderness lovers and lovers of US history!
Average customer rating:
- Revisit 1950's life on the farm
- Curlew: Home
|
Curlew: Home
Tom Montag
Manufacturer: Midday Moon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Essays
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0971187401 |
Customer Reviews:
Revisit 1950's life on the farm.......2005-09-02
If you long for more simple times in life,
this book is for you.
Mr. Montag will move you into
history and, at times unwillingly,
into the present. His memoir will
also make you realize time is equal
for everyone.
I found this book very similar to
Dakota by Kathleen Norris.
Curlew: Home.......2001-11-30
Curlew: Home by Tom Montag rang true with me, a fellow Midwesterner. In this combination memoir and critical reflection on childhood, Tom Montag revisits his roots in and around the small town of Curlew, Iowa, circa 1960-65. He reflects on his childhood through the eyes of a middle aged adult who now has the perspective necessary to see himself as he was and to see the buildings, land and people as they were.
But this book is more than just musings of the past over potato salad at a family reunion. This book has introspection with an intuitive psychological foundation on a par with Tom Brokaw written with the word choice of a poet, which Tom Montag is.
Although this is a book about a corner of Iowa, it is, in reality, not a book about Iowa. Curlew, Iowa, and the Midwest become symbols of the greater reality of family, home, life, death and change. It is a book about what it means to be human.
With the opening words, I became part of the book. Memories of my own parents and grandparents came back to me. These memories may have remained hidden forever without Tom Montag and his new book.
Customer Reviews:
Excelente.......1999-05-20
Muestra de manera muy interesante la realidad de las politicas internacionales y las dudas de las personas que las llevan a cabo. A pesar de estar situado en la decada del '60 es de total actualidad. Un relato muy humano.
Books:
- The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11
- The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City
- The Five Languages of Apology: How to Experience Healing in All Your Relationships
- The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
- The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
- The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times
- The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division
- The Mark : The Beast Rules the World (Left Behind #8) (Left Behind, 8)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The New American Story
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- 13 Proven Ways to Get Your Message Across: The Essential Reference for Teachers, Trainers, Presenter
- The Complete Guide to Sharpening
- Introduccion Al Analisis Economico del Derecho
- Look at This Tree
- Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook: A Compendium for Coastal and Offshore Sailors
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Gift Set
- Pulmonary Endothelium in Health and Disease
- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wills and Estates, Third Edition
- Ledgers and Prices: Early Mesopotamian Merchant Accounts
- Architectural Drafting and Design, 4E
The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective
Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur
The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence
A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation
Incoherent Empire
