GENOCIDE: The Systematic Killing of a People

An addition to the Issues in Focus library demonstrates that mass killing of civilians is not a practice unique to our century, but, as this grim tally shows, it has become horribly common in modern warfare. Using a mix of general statements and eyewitness accounts, Altman (Migrant Farm Workers, 1994, etc.) cites incidents from ancient history, the Crusades, and several massacres of Native American groups that presaged the largescale exterminations of Armenians (more than 1 million), Jews (6 million), Poles and Gypsies (3 million, the ""other Holocaust""), Ukrainian ""kulaks"" (5-10 million), and Cambodians (2--3 million). She mentions more recent pogroms and civil wars in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Somalia--though not Afghanistan, India, or Timor--and notes the worldwide growth of a ""New Tribalism"" that is fueling ethnic strife. The author closes with sage, if very general, advice for readers: Don't laugh at ethnic jokes, speak out against prejudice, and be aware that genocide has always begun in small steps, and would not be possible without the silence--and active participation--of ordinary citizens. Solid background reading on this scary, controversial topic: concise, well-organized, thoroughly documented.