The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 1, Genocide in the Ancient, Medieval and Premodern Worlds

Description

Volume I offers an introductory survey of the phenomenon of genocide. The first five chapters examine its major recurring themes, while the further nineteen are specific case studies. The combination of thematic and empirical approaches illuminates the origins and long history of genocide, its causes, consistent characteristics, and the connections linking various cases from earliest times to the early modern era. The themes examined include the roles of racism, the state, religion, gender prejudice, famine, and climate crises, as well as the role of human decision-making in the causation of genocide. The case studies cover events on four continents, ranging from prehistoric Europe and the Andes to ancient Israel, Mesopotamia, the early Greek world, Rome, Carthage, and the Mediterranean. It continues with the Norman Conquest of England's North, the Crusades, the Mongol Conquests, medieval India and Viet Nam, and a panoramic study of pre-modern China, as well as the Spanish conquests of the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

Ben Kiernan is the Griswold Professor of History at Yale University and founding Director of Yale's Genocide Studies Program. His book Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur (2007) has won numerous prizes, including a gold medal for the best work of history, awarded by the Independent Publishers Association. T. M. Lemos is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Huron University College and a member of the graduate school faculty and the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at the University of Western Ontario. Tristan S. Taylor is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of New England. He was a Visiting Fellow in Genocide Studies in the Yale University Genocide Studies Program in 2013-14 and was awarded a UNE Partnerships Grant for his work on comparative genocide studies in the Roman world. Ben Kiernan is the Griswold Professor of History at Yale University and founding Director of Yale's Genocide Studies Program. His book Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur (2007) has won numerous prizes, including a gold medal for the best work of history, awarded by the Independent Publishers Association.