Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur |  | Author: Ben Kiernan
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
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Media: Paperback
Pages: 768
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Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 2.2
ISBN: 0300144253
Dewey Decimal Number: 303
EAN: 9780300144253
ASIN: 0300144253
Publication Date: February 17, 2009
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Product Description
For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. His writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia but also of the historical phenomenon of genocide. This new book—the first global history of genocide and extermination from ancient times—is among his most important achievements. Â Kiernan examines outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present, focusing on worldwide colonial exterminations and twentieth-century case studies including the Armenian genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinâs mass murders, and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides. He identifies connections, patterns, and features that in nearly every case gave early warning of the catastrophe to come: racism or religious prejudice, territorial expansionism, and cults of antiquity and agrarianism. The ideologies that have motivated perpetrators of mass killings in the past persist in our new century, says Kiernan. He urges that we heed the rich historical evidence with its telltale signs for predicting and preventing future genocides.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 Genocidal Energy Sources: Antiquity, Agrarianism, Racism, and/or Expansionism January 14, 2008
Serge J. Van Steenkiste (Atlanta, GA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Ben Kiernan has realized a tour de force in clearly explaining to his readers the four usual ideological features of genocides: antiquity, agrarianism, racism, and expansionism. These ideological factors have motivated, in greater or lesser degrees, all military, civilian, racist, or religious perpetrators of genocide over time (p. 572). Kiernan focuses most of his analysis on the six centuries since 1400 C.E (p. 3).
To identify present and past genocides, Kiernan mainly draws on the 1948 C.E. United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and on legal judgments based on that convention for consistency purposes (p. 12). The crime of genocide requires the act of "killing," or another of the specific acts, committed with "intent to destroy" at least part of a protected group (p. 17).
Although Blood and Soil mainly documents genocides committed by Europeans, they have no monopoly on that crime (p. 6). Think for example about Maoism in China (pp. 512-38), Rwanda in Central Africa (pp. 554-68), or non-state actor al Qaeda (pp. 596-604), to quote three recent examples. Kiernan excludes some genocides from his book due to space constraints. Think for instance about the Mongols' slaughter of the inhabitants of Baghdad in 1258 C.E., the Spaniards' destruction of the Inca empire in the 16th century C.E., or the Congo Free State of Belgium's King Leopold II at the turn of the 20th century C.E. (p. 38).
Kiernan notes that genocides are usually undertaken by radical, unstable regimes, who often try to squash any domestic dissent by focusing attention on an external, supposedly common threat (pp. 34, 55-58, 339-49, 393, 409-14, 441, 505, 510-11, 547, 559, 567, 569, 590). Furthermore, Kiernan observes that technological, political, organizational changes that happened in the 20th century make it possible to commit genocide on an "industrial" scale (pp. 393, 454). Think for example about the huge advances in weaponry and the progress made in both communication and transportation in the last 100 years.
Kiernan often quotes verbatim (would-be) perpetrators of genocide in different periods and locations so that readers better recognize the four recurring reasons that are usually advanced to justify genocide.
1) Antiquity: The destruction of Carthage by Rome sets a precedent for genocides committed by Europeans (pp. 51, 58, 186, 387, 422, 605). Al Qaeda has a politicized cult of Islamic antiquity for its projected caliphate (pp. 599-600). In contrast, Russia's Bolsheviks and China's Communist revolutionaries sought a sharp break with their respective country's past, seeking all-out modernization (pp. 394, 512).
2) Agrarianism: The more ancient image of the Garden of Eden, whether as pristine ethnic preserve, uninhabited pastoral idyll, or superior agricultural economy, was widely used by European colonists as an excuse to deprive natives from land ownership, and in some cases, obliterate their presence (pp. 79, 165-69, 217-18, 284, 311-18, 327, 367, 374, 423, 436, 486, 605). Interestingly, Russia's Bolsheviks and China's Communist revolutionaries were against the peasantry because they considered it an alternative power structure to be crushed (pp. 489-503, 526-31). Although the world is increasingly urbanized and industrialized, the aversion to cities and industries, which springs from this same faith in rural virtues, remains potent in the mind of many genocidal perpetrators (pp. 32, 424, 430-32, 536-38, 545, 564, 575, 580, 592, 603-06). For example, Serb perpetrators of the Bosnian genocide regarded their Muslim victims as city dwellers, in contrast to Serb peasants (p. 592).
3) Racism: Many perpetrators have used biological metaphors to justify genocidal massacres (pp. 280-81, 309, 313, 375, 388, 394, 431, 439, 450-51, 475, 483, 559, 566, 587-88, 602). For example, the slogan "Nits make Lice" was used to justify the massacres of Native Americans in the American West and Aborigines in the Australian outback in the 19th century C.E. Other examples include the comparison of Jews to "lice" by the Nazis or the reduction of the Shi'a community to the locus "where the disease lies" according to al Qaeda (p. 606).
4) Expansionism: Imperial and territorial conquests often result in the extermination of local populations (pp. 77, 88, 95, 99-100, 248, 270, 284, 374, 386, 438, 446, 453-55). Think for example about what happened to many Amerindians who were "in the way" of white settlers before and after the independence of the U.S. (pp. 213-48, 310-63). Kiernan also observes that (future) genocidal leaders regularly hail disproportionately from previously "lost" territories beyond the supposedly shrinking prewar homeland. Think for instance about the Young Turks, Nazi Leaders, or the Khmer Rouge (pp. 393, 433, 551-52).
Although some quotes of (would-be) perpetrators of genocide can look and feel like delirium, they should be taken seriously to prevent future genocides (pp. 569, 606). Kiernan demonstrates with much conviction that would-be perpetrators of genocide often telegraph in advance what is awaiting the "undesirables" on their target list once they are at their mercy.
Here follow two recent examples:
1) From 1986, Hutu chauvinist historian Ferdinand Nahimana became a highly influential, multimedia ideologue of the Hutu resistance to Tutsi intrusion which culminated in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi (pp. 560-62).
2) In 1987, the Committee of the Arab Gathering in Darfur, Sudan, sent an ominous letter of ethnic complaint about non-Arab Africans living in the region to the Sudanese prime minister in Khartoum. As the cliché says, the rest is history (pp. 594-96).
As a side note, Kiernan could leverage his in-depth expertise on the subject to write another book that helps countries better deal with the aftermath of genocides. Prosecuting the worst perpetrators of genocides is not enough (p. 415). The recent controversy in the U.S. about what happened to the Armenians living under Ottoman rule during WWI shows that no reconciliation can be seriously considered as long as the past is not dealt with appropriately (pp. 395-415).
An accessible and thorough text on genocide December 23, 2007
C. R. Went (Australia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Kiernan's books on Cambodia are seen as seminal texts on the subject of the revolution and resulting genocide. Now he extends his writing to cover the history of genocide, and does so in an accessible and engaging way. The chapter on cambodia is particularly good but the entire book is valuable for both academics and secondaty teachers at senior levels seeking sources.
An intricate but broad study of a universal subject. February 1, 2009
Peter B. Kiernan (Australia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have sent this outstanding history to a college in Kenya. It should be disseminated widely as it is a unique and thorough analysis of a world-wide tragedy.
Truth, Informative, educational November 26, 2009
Lil Izquierdo (Quebradillas, Puerto Rico)
The book is very long, very comprehensive. It's a book to study and to learn from. The author is beyond description in excellence and devotion to his work.
 A Very Important Book December 1, 2007
Future Watch Writer (Washington, D.C. Area)
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
After Hitler's mass murder of the Jews people said "Never again". It has been a futile hope so far. What is particularly chilling has been the growth of ethnic and religious mass murder since the fall of the Soviet Union was supposed to usher in a new age of the "democratic peace". Indeed, as Amy Chua has pointed out in her book World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability the "new" order of capitalism and democracy has been anything but orderly.
Unfortunately, while the shelves of America's bookstores are groaning under the weight of an almost endless collection of books on the Nazi genocide, there has been little attention the larger issue of genocide in world history and the reasons for it.
This book tries to fill that gap. It should be read in conjunction with Death by Government the best book on political mass murder in the last century. I also have a list of books on the subject of political terror and mass murder in the lists section of my Amazon profile.
This book is higly relevant because the incentives for genocide in the next 100 years are going to be far greater than in the past. Rising world populations and global warming are going to create a greater and more brutal competition for food and resources. Rwanda, for example, was one of the most densely populated nations in Africa.
In 1945 people hoped books like this would only be about the past. Today we hope they will only concern the recent present and the past. However, this book is grim warning about what is likely to happen if our world does not deal effectively with problems like climate change and global poverty. Let's hope nobody will have to write a book about the genocide in our future 50 years form now. Reading this book might give us some ideas of how to prevent a new wave of crimes and horrors.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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