Genocide, mass murder and human rights abuses are arguably the most perplexing and deeply troubling aspects of recent world history. This collection of essays by leading international experts offers an up-to-date, comprehensive history and analyses of multiple cases of genocide and genocidal acts, with a focus on the twentieth century. The book contains studies of the Armenian genocide, the victims of Stalinist terror, the Holocaust, and Imperial Japan. Several authors explore colonialism and address the fate of the indigenous peoples in Africa, North America, and Australia. As well, there is extensive coverage of the post-1945 period, including the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, Bali, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, East Timor, and Guatemala. The book emphasizes the importance of comparative analysis and theoretical discussion, and it raises new questions about the difficult challenges for modernity constituted by genocide and other mass crimes.

'… extraordinarily informative … Recommended as a companion to classic titles like Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem.'

Source: Publishers Weekly

'Kiernan and Gellately have assembled a stellar group of academics to produce a first-rate book usefully balanced between theory and case studies and focusing on the 55 years since the UN genocide convention was adopted … Highly recommended.'

Source: Choice

'This book is a starting point for those who wish to learn more about the complexities of the genocide debate.'

Source: Military Review

'… includes a number of important and interesting selections on some of the lesser known-cases of genocide.'

Source: Ethnic and Racial Studies

'The editors of The Specter of Genocide offer a geographical and chronologically wide-ranging volume, assimilating a vairety of topics better than many edited volumes. Readers will especially appreciate the theortetical overview they provide.'

Source: Holocaust & Genocide Studies

'… useful comments on general aspects of genocide and near genocide: an obsession with purity and pollution on the part of the persecutors, the holding of power by military groups who are unrestrained by civilian politicians or public opinion, revolutionary governments transforming society, and peasantism, the idealization of the rooted cultivator of the soil.'

Source: Morality