Hidden Genocides - (Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights) by Alexander Laban Hinton & Thomas La Pointe & Douglas Irvin-Erickson (Paperback)

About the Book

Why are some cases of genocide prominently remembered while others are ignored, hidden, or denied? In this collection, contributors approach the question from a variety of perspectives and case studies, including the suppression of discussion about indigenous populations in the Americas and Australia, the reasons why the genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks long remained out of sight, and the violence that was the precursor to and the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Book Synopsis

Why are some genocides prominently remembered while others are ignored, hidden, or denied? Consider the Turkish campaign denying the Armenian genocide, followed by the Armenian movement to recognize the violence. Similar movements are building to acknowledge other genocides that have long remained out of sight in the media, such as those against the Circassians, Greeks, Assyrians, the indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australia, and the violence that was the precursor to and the aftermath of the Holocaust.

The contributors to this collection look at these cases and others from a variety of perspectives. These essays cover the extent to which our biases, our ways of knowing, our patterns of definition, our assumptions about truth, and our processes of remembering and forgetting as well as the characteristics of generational transmission, the structures of power and state ideology, and diaspora have played a role in hiding some events and not others. Noteworthy among the collection's coverage is whether the trade in African slaves was a form of genocide and a discussion not only of Hutus brutalizing Tutsi victims in Rwanda, but of the execution of moderate Hutus as well.

Hidden Genocides is a significant contribution in terms of both descriptive narratives and interpretations to the emerging subfield of critical genocide studies.

Contributors: Daniel Feierstein, Donna-Lee Frieze, Krista Hegburg, Alexander Laban Hinton, Adam Jones, A. Dirk Moses, Chris M. Nunpa, Walter Richmond, Hannibal Travis, and Elisa von Joeden-Forgey

Review Quotes

"Hidden Genocides is a penetrating scholarly searchlight illuminating an important and previously obscured landscape."--Frank Chalk "Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University" (7/30/2013 12:00:00 AM)

"By problematizing, both theoretically and empirically, the canon of genocide studies, this collection makes an important contribution to an underdeveloped field."--Jens Meierhenrich "London School of Economics and Political Science" (7/30/2013 12:00:00 AM)

"Hidden Genocides collection is an essential guide to the latest scholarship on genocide studies from an international and comparative perspective."-- "American Hellenic Institute Policy Journal"

"Hidden Genocides is a timely collection of critical essays that effectively engages scholars in rethinking the way we conceptualize, approach, and teach genocide studies. A must-read for a wide-range of scholars."-- "Journal of Anthropological Research"

"Hinton, La Pointe, and Irvin-Erickson offer a useful prism through which to examine and weigh conventional accounts of genocide. It reveals cover-ups and makes the invisible visible."-- "Genocide Studies and Prevention"

About the Author

ALEXANDER LABAN HINTON is the director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and a professor of anthropology and global affairs at Rutgers University, Newark. He is the author of the award-winning Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide and six edited collections.

THOMAS LA POINTE is a member of the Center for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation and an assistant professor of literature and composition at Bergen Community College. He has taught at the Shanghai International Studies University, China, and served as a journalist at the Institute for Central American Studies, Costa Rica.

DOUGLAS IRVIN-ERICKSON is an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University, Newark.