After “Schindler’s List,” it became customary for my students, and I, to repeat the slogan “Never Again.” We did so seriously, with solemn expressions on our faces and intensity in our voices. But, if I’m being honest,
77 min
552
Alon Confino, “A World Without Jews: The Nazi I...
Alon Confino‘s A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide (Yale University Press, 2014) begins with a vivid and devastating scene in the small German town of Fürth on November 10,
51 min
553
Robert J. Donia, “Radovan Karadzic: Architect o...
As a graduate student at Ohio State in the early 1990s, I remember watching the collapse of Yugoslavia on the news almost every night and reading about it in the newspaper the next day.The first genocidal conflict covered in real time,
65 min
554
Anne Knowles, Mastering Iron (U of Chicago Pres...
Last month on New Books in Geography, historian Susan Schulten discussed the development of thematic maps in the nineteenth century. Such maps focused on a particular topic such as disease, immigration, or politics and raised questions about society an...
47 min
555
James Mace Ward, “Priest, Politician, Collabora...
In his biography of Jozef Tiso, Catholic priest and president of independent Slovakia (1939-1944), James Ward provides a deeper understanding of a man who has been both honored and vilified since his execution as a Nazi collaborator in 1947. Priest,
72 min
556
Thomas Kuehne, “Belonging and Genocide: Hitler’...
As a teenager, I heard or read or saw (in films or on television) story after story about the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. Despite the occasional ‘corrective’ offered by Hogan’s Heroes, the impression given was that the Gestapo were all knowing and...
67 min
557
Joyce Apsel and Ernesto Verdeja, “Genocide Matt...
The field of genocide studies is surprisingly young. As Sam Totten and I discussed in an interview earlier this year, it dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s. That makes the field about 25 years old.
63 min
558
Thierry Cruvellier, “The Master of Confessions:...
What is justice for a man who supervised the interrogation and killing of thousands? Especially a man who now claims to be a Christian and to be, at least in some ways and cases, repentant for his crimes? Thierry Cruvellier has written a fascinating bo...
59 min
559
Deborah Mayersen, “On the Path to Genocide: Arm...
I live and work in the state of Kansas in the US. We think of ourselves as living in tornado alley and orient our schedules in the spring around the weather report. Earthquakes are something that happen somewhere else. Recently, however,
62 min
560
What Do We Now Know About the Rwandan Genocide ...
In 1994 I was in graduate school, trying hard to juggle teaching, getting started on my dissertation and having something of a real life. The real life part suffered most of all. But every once in a while,
67 min
561
Martin Shaw, “Genocide and International Relati...
Works in the field of genocide studies tend to fall into one of a few camps. Some are emotional and personal. Others are historical and narrative. Still others are intentionally activist and aimed at changing policy or decisions.
60 min
562
Samuel Totten, “Genocide by Attrition: The Nuba...
Most of the authors I’ve interviewed for this show have addressed episodes in the past, campaigns of mass violence that occurred long ago, often well-before the author was born. Today’s show is different. In his book Genocide by Attrition: The Nuba Mou...
82 min
563
Michael Bryant, “Eyewitness to Genocide: The Op...
My marginal comment, recorded at the end of the chapter on the Belzec trial in Michael Bryant‘s fine new book Eyewitness to Genocide: The Operation Reinhard Death Camp Trials, 1955-1966 (University of Tennessee Press, 2014), is simple: “!!!!
75 min
564
Wendy Lower, “Hitler’s Furies: German Women in ...
It seems quite reasonable to wonder if there’s anything more to learn about the Holocaust. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have been researching and writing about the subject for decades. A simple search for “Holocaust” on Amazon turns up a stun...
57 min
565
Benjamin Lieberman, “Remaking Identities: God, ...
What do you say to someone who suggests that genocide is not just destructive, but constructive? This is the basic theme of Benjamin Lieberman‘s excellent new book Remaking Identities: God, Nation and Race in World History (Rowman and Littlefield,
51 min
566
Mark Levene, “The Crisis of Genocide” (Oxford U...
I imagine one of the greatest compliments an author of an historical monograph can receive is to hear that his or her book changed the way a subject is taught. I will do just that after reading Mark Levene‘s new two volume work The Crisis of Genocide (...
71 min
567
Susan Thomson, “Whispering Truth to Power” (Uni...
This spring, I taught a class loosely called “The Holocaust through Primary Sources” to a small group of selected students. I started one class by asking them the deceptively simple question “When did the Holocaust end?
55 min
568
Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, “Nazis, ...
This book tells a remarkable and–to me at least–little known but very important story. In Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East(Yale UP, 2014), Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz trace the many connections between Germany–Imperi...
59 min
569
Richard Weikart, “Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Purs...
For many years now, historians have wondered whether Hitler had any sort of consistent ideology. His writings are rambling and confusing. His speeches are full of plain lies. His “table talk” reflects a wandering,
53 min
570
Donna-Lee Frieze, “Totally Unofficial: The Auto...
It’s hard to overestimate the role of Raphael Lemkin in calling the world’s attention to the crime of genocide. But for decades his name languished, as scholars and the broader public devoted their time and attention to other people and other things.
36 min
571
Steven L. Jacobs, “Lemkin on Genocide” (Lexingt...
It’s hard to overestimate the role of Raphael Lemkin in calling the world’s attention to the crime of genocide. But for decades his name languished, as scholars and the broader public devoted their time and attention to other people and other things.
58 min
572
Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Terror in the Land of...
I have a colleague at Newman who takes students to Guatemala every summer. Since I arrived she’s encouraged me to join her. I would stay with the order of sisters who sponsor our university. I’d learn at least a few words of rudimentary Spanish.
40 min
573
Nitzan Lebovic, “The Philosophy of Life and Dea...
Thomas Mann referred to Ludwig Klages (1872-1956) as a “criminal philosopher,” a “Pan-Germanist,” “an irrationalist,” a “Tarzan philosopher,” “a cultural pessimist… the voice of the world’s downfall.” Yet, Walter Benjamin urged his friend Gershom Schol...
70 min
574
Olga Gershenson, “The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet...
Fifty years of Holocaust screenplays and films -largely unknown, killed by censors, and buried in dusty archives – come to life in Olga Gershenson‘s The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe (Rutgers University Press, 2013).
71 min
575
Adam Jones, “The Scourge of Genocide: Essays an...
Being an academic is usually a forward-looking career. You are generally focused on the next book or the next project (or perhaps the next class period). Certainly, there may be times when you rethink an old judgment or return to a subject you’ve ign...