Shows
Locked On SMU - Daily Podcast on SMU Mustangs Football & BasketballMYSTERY: SMU Running Back DEPTH May STUN—Inside Chris Johnson Jr., Derek McFall, and Freshmen DynamicsSMU Mustangs face a running back room full of questions as the post-Brashard Smith era continues, but could this uncertainty be their greatest strength? Grayson Singleton breaks down the dynamic talents of Chris Johnson Jr., Derrick McFall, Dramecko Green, and incoming freshmen Christian Rhodes and Eddie Kelly, spotlighting how portal additions might further shake up the depth chart. With Coach Foster’s versatile approach, can SMU’s backfield produce big numbers again without a clear RB1? Recruiting momentum surges as SMU leverages its new ACC status, landing top offensive line talent under Garin Justice—including major f...
2025-12-1126 min
New Books in Genocide StudiesBrendan Simms, "Hitler: A Global Biography" (Basic Books, 2019)Every generation returns to the titanic heroes and villains of the 20th century. And every generation produces a new set of biographies--often immense--in an effort to understand the role of that eras main figures.In the past three years, three important new books have reassessed Hitler's life, beliefs and actions. Two of the authors, Volker Ulrich and Peter Longerich, are historians of Germany who are German. The third, our guest for today's interview, is British. In his new book Hitler: A Global Biography (Basic Books, 2019), Brendan Simms offers us a different Hitler, one much more focused on global...
2025-08-2429 minNew Books in Genocide StudiesFrank Jacob, "Japanese War Crimes during World War II: Atrocity and the Psychology of Collective Violence" (Praeger, 2018)When you mention Japanese War crimes in World War Two, you’ll often get different responses from different generations. The oldest among us will talk about the Bataan Death March. Younger people, coming of age in the 1990s, will mention the Rape of Nanking or the comfort women forced into service by the Japanese army. Occasionally, someone will mention biological warfare.Frank Jacob has offered a valuable service by surveying Japanese mistreatment of civilians and soldiers comprehensively. His book, Japanese War Crimes during World War II: Atrocity and the Psychology of Collective Violence (Praeger, 2018), is short and doesn’...
2025-07-281h 06
The VINTAGE HOUSE Show Podcast On Air & On-Line | Business, Culture, History of House MusicDJ Kelly G shares his rise from WNUR To Revolt TV. Kevin "Mega" McFall and Lauren Lowery tells the story of a true Music PioneerDJ KELLY G is a Chicago House Music Legend. His influence goes from behind the decks to behind the camera. He has worked with the greats in R&B and Hip Hop, to working with Steve "Silk" Hurley and DJ Terry Hunter. HIs story is inspirational, and this in-depth conversation celebrates Black Music and Black History. Listen in and Share. Listen Live Wednesdays at 10pm WNUR.org 89.3FM ChicagoSupport the showwww.VintageHouseShow.comPreserving and Celebrating the History of House Music
2023-03-271h 19
New Books in SportsNancy Lough and Andrea N. Geurin, "Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport" (Routledge, 2019)Shortly after the conclusion of the Women's World Cup earlier this summer, a friend suggested to me that it signaled the long-awaited arrival of soccer as a mainstream sport in the U.S. I thought a second, remembering the commercials around the game and the way the television cameras shot the crowd. Then I responded that I thought it wasn't really the long-awaited arrival of soccer, but the emergence of women's sports into the mainstream of American culture.This is something of an exaggeration. But the summer of the World Cup is perhaps a perfect time to...
2022-09-291h 17
Reacting to the PodcastBrilliancy Prize Award Winners pt. 3.Today is the third and last of our interviews with winners of Reacting's Brilliancy Prize. I talk with Kyle Lincoln about the Fourth Crusade game he and John Giebfried co-authored. John was in the middle of a move to Austria and wasn't available to talk. But Kyle and I had a great conversation about the game, about the the ways he and John tried to encourage creativity in his students, and about the importance of providing students the opportunity to fail.
2022-05-1159 minReacting to the PodcastBrilliancy Prize Winners Pt. 2.This week's interview is with Terri Nelson. Terri has contributed to Reacting in all kinds of ways. She's an invaluable resource for integrating technology into the classroom. She has hint after hint about gamemastering game after game. And so on and on and so on.
And she's the winner of the 2020 Brilliancy Prize. This is the second of a three part series of interviews with Brilliancy Prize winners. Be sure to listen to part one with Martha Attridge Bufton and Pamela Walker and part three with Kyle Lincoln.
2022-04-0838 minReacting to the PodcastThe Brilliancy Prize Winners pt. 1.This week we feature an interview with Pamela Walker and Martha Attridge Bufton, winners of the Reacting Brilliancy Prize. This is the first of three episodes featuring winners of the prize.
2022-03-3059 min
New Books in Jewish StudiesL. Hilton and A. Patt, "Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust" (U Wisconsin Press, 2020)I wish I had seen Laura Hilton and Avinoam Patt's Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020) six months ago. I taught a course in the fall titled "The Holocaust and its Legacies." It's a course I've taught several times. It's a good course, co-taught with Professor of Theology. But it's a course that would have been better if I had read this book the summer before I taught it.Laura HIlton and Avinoam Patt have collected a series of essays designed specifically for high school and university level instructors who teach the Holocaust. Some of the...
2021-01-181h 11
New Books in EducationL. Hilton and A. Patt, "Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust" (U Wisconsin Press, 2020)I wish I had seen Laura Hilton and Avinoam Patt's Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020) six months ago. I taught a course in the fall titled "The Holocaust and its Legacies." It's a course I've taught several times. It's a good course, co-taught with Professor of Theology. But it's a course that would have been better if I had read this book the summer before I taught it.Laura HIlton and Avinoam Patt have collected a series of essays designed specifically for high school and university level instructors who teach the Holocaust. Some of the...
2021-01-181h 11
New Books in German StudiesL. Hilton and A. Patt, "Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust" (U Wisconsin Press, 2020)I wish I had seen Laura Hilton and Avinoam Patt's Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020) six months ago. I taught a course in the fall titled "The Holocaust and its Legacies." It's a course I've taught several times. It's a good course, co-taught with Professor of Theology. But it's a course that would have been better if I had read this book the summer before I taught it.Laura HIlton and Avinoam Patt have collected a series of essays designed specifically for high school and university level instructors who teach the Holocaust. Some of the...
2021-01-181h 11New Books in Genocide StudiesCarol Rittner and John K. Roth, "Advancing Holocaust Studies" (Routledge, 2020)I think this is the fifth time I've interviewed John K. Roth for the podcast (and the second for Carol Rittner). He has always been relentlessly realistic about the challenges, intellectual, practical and emotional, that Holocaust Studies poses. Advancing Holocaust Studies (Routledge, 2020), however, reads differently. Published in a world wracked by political and ideological conflict, the essays here struggle to reconcile the time, energy and devotion Holocaust scholars have poured into their subject with the seeming failure to change real world behavior and attitudes. The essays are personal and honest. They ask hard questions about the value of Holoc...
2021-01-141h 11
New Books in Eastern European StudiesCarol Rittner and John K. Roth, "Advancing Holocaust Studies" (Routledge, 2020)I think this is the fifth time I've interviewed John K. Roth for the podcast (and the second for Carol Rittner). He has always been relentlessly realistic about the challenges, intellectual, practical and emotional, that Holocaust Studies poses. Advancing Holocaust Studies (Routledge, 2020), however, reads differently. Published in a world wracked by political and ideological conflict, the essays here struggle to reconcile the time, energy and devotion Holocaust scholars have poured into their subject with the seeming failure to change real world behavior and attitudes. The essays are personal and honest. They ask hard questions about the value of Holoc...
2021-01-141h 11New Books in German StudiesCarol Rittner and John K. Roth, "Advancing Holocaust Studies" (Routledge, 2020)I think this is the fifth time I've interviewed John K. Roth for the podcast (and the second for Carol Rittner). He has always been relentlessly realistic about the challenges, intellectual, practical and emotional, that Holocaust Studies poses. Advancing Holocaust Studies (Routledge, 2020), however, reads differently. Published in a world wracked by political and ideological conflict, the essays here struggle to reconcile the time, energy and devotion Holocaust scholars have poured into their subject with the seeming failure to change real world behavior and attitudes. The essays are personal and honest. They ask hard questions about the value of Holoc...
2021-01-141h 11New Books in Jewish StudiesCarol Rittner and John K. Roth, "Advancing Holocaust Studies" (Routledge, 2020)I think this is the fifth time I've interviewed John K. Roth for the podcast (and the second for Carol Rittner). He has always been relentlessly realistic about the challenges, intellectual, practical and emotional, that Holocaust Studies poses. Advancing Holocaust Studies (Routledge, 2020), however, reads differently. Published in a world wracked by political and ideological conflict, the essays here struggle to reconcile the time, energy and devotion Holocaust scholars have poured into their subject with the seeming failure to change real world behavior and attitudes. The essays are personal and honest. They ask hard questions about the value of Holoc...
2021-01-141h 11
Reacting to the PodcastJon Truitt and Stephany Slaughter on Mexico in Revolution, 1912-1920I first played the Mexican Revolution game at Barnard in, I think, 2015. I have a very clear memory of someone (I don't remember who) taking advantage of a distraction to sneak around the back of the room to steal the entire Mexican treasury. Needless to say, that someone wasn't me. And, again needless to say, I lost that game.
That's a particularly vivid memory. But it reminds me of all the many things I learned about the Mexican Revolution from playing the game.
So I'm thrilled that Norton decided to publish the game. It appeared a few mo...
2020-09-2449 minReacting to the PodcastRemembering the Summer of ReactingIf you're anything like me, you rued the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Institute and wondered what could possibly replace it.
Well, that was the Summer of Reacting. And was it ever cool.
Today I talk with Jenn Worth, Maddie Provo and Tony Crider about how Reacting tried to fill the void left by the Annual Institute, what we learned from a summer spent on-line, and what plans exist for the fall and winter. It reminds us of the way empty spaces can be filled with something new and improvisations become opportunities.
2020-09-1749 minReacting to the PodcastAn interview with Amy CurryPlay a game about a plague in the middle of a pandemic? Who would want to do that?
Lots of people, it turns out. So I thought we should talk to Amy Curry, the designer of 1349,: The Black Death Comes to Norwich. In our interview, we chat about why Amy decided to write a game about the topic, how the game evolved over time and how it changed when Amy started teaching it on-line.
But Amy is also one of Reacting's resident experts at running asynchronous games. So I asked her for tips and warnings about...
2020-09-1050 minNew Books in Genocide StudiesT. P. Kaplan and W. Gruner, "Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust" (Berghahn, 2020)In 20 years of studying the Holocaust, it didn’t occurr to me that German officials might, when petitioned by German Jews or by Germans advocating for German Jews, change their minds. But it turns out that, sometimes, they did. And even when they didn’t, petitioning local, regional or national officials (often all at the same time) could delay deportations or punishments or even function as a form of resistance.Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust (Berghahn Books) looks at these petitions from a variety of perspectives. As editors Thomas Kaplan and Wolf Gruner argue...
2020-09-081h 05New Books in German StudiesT. P. Kaplan and W. Gruner, "Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust" (Berghahn, 2020)In 20 years of studying the Holocaust, it didn’t occurr to me that German officials might, when petitioned by German Jews or by Germans advocating for German Jews, change their minds. But it turns out that, sometimes, they did. And even when they didn’t, petitioning local, regional or national officials (often all at the same time) could delay deportations or punishments or even function as a form of resistance.Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust (Berghahn Books) looks at these petitions from a variety of perspectives. As editors Thomas Kaplan and Wolf Gruner argue...
2020-09-081h 05New Books in Genocide StudiesRichard Breitman, "The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies"(Oxford Academic/USHMM)The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies is turning twenty-five. One of the first academic journals focused on the study of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies, it has been one of a few journals that led the field in new directions.So it seemed appropriate to mark the moment by talking with Richard Breitman, its long-time editor. Breitman is professor emeritus at American University and the author of several books on German history and the Holocaust. We talk in the interview about the origins of the Journal, about what it means to be the editor of an acad...
2020-08-0745 minNew Books in German StudiesRichard Breitman, "The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies"(Oxford Academic/USHMM)The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies is turning twenty-five. One of the first academic journals focused on the study of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies, it has been one of a few journals that led the field in new directions.So it seemed appropriate to mark the moment by talking with Richard Breitman, its long-time editor. Breitman is professor emeritus at American University and the author of several books on German history and the Holocaust. We talk in the interview about the origins of the Journal, about what it means to be the editor of an acad...
2020-08-0745 min
New Books in Environmental StudiesRichard Breitman, "The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies"(Oxford Academic/USHMM)The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies is turning twenty-five. One of the first academic journals focused on the study of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies, it has been one of a few journals that led the field in new directions.So it seemed appropriate to mark the moment by talking with Richard Breitman, its long-time editor. Breitman is professor emeritus at American University and the author of several books on German history and the Holocaust. We talk in the interview about the origins of the Journal, about what it means to be the editor of an acad...
2020-08-0745 minReacting to the PodcastWhat preceptors want you to know about their roleEvery couple weeks, there's a question on the facebook faculty lounge about how to recruit, compensate and utilize student preceptors. A few, or a lot, of faculty then respond. But we never hear from students themselves.
This episode lets you do just that. Leanne Vastbinder, Jessica Howell and Elliot Morelli join me to talk about why they decided they wanted to be a preceptor, what they've learned from the experience, and how they want to work with professors. It's worth listening to the entire interview. But if you're considering asking students to work with you, please listen to at...
2020-07-3148 minReacting to the PodcastRobbie Goodrich on writing games about difficult topicsThe Reacting community has had many discussions about playing and running games involving controversial or difficult content. Inevitably, after a break in the conversation, someone will say "But what about the Weimar game?"
Today's guest is Robbie Goodrich, professor of History at Northern Michigan University and author of said Weimar game. He and I had a fascinating discussion about how the game came about, how it has changed over time, and why the label "the Weimar game" is really important.
If you are going to run Weimar, I would suggest you view this interview as an e...
2020-07-2356 minReacting to the PodcastNick Proctor talks about the REBEver wonder what happens behind the Reacting Editorial Board curtain? Or just confused about what REB stands for?
This week I chat with Nick Proctor about the Reacting Editorial Board. Nick got into Reacting very early and has been an active participant for years. He's an author, and sometime he'll be back on the pod to talk about his experiences writing games. But today I asked him to talk about his role helping game authors improve their games and moving them toward publication. We talk about why the REB exists at all, what it does (and doesn't do...
2020-07-1631 minReacting to the PodcastAn Interview with Mary Jane TreacyFor years after I first played Mary Jane Treacy's Greenwich Village game, Judith Shapiro, the former president of Barnard College, called me Emma (for Emma Goldman) whenever she saw me. Our experience playing the game was that memorable.
A second edition of GV is now in the works. In this interview, I talked with Mary Jane about how she became a game author, what led her to invent Personal Influence Points, about her other games (Paterson and Argentina) and about what will be new in v. 2.0 of GV.
The informal tagline for this podcast is "Gr...
2020-07-0851 minReacting to the PodcastJohn Moser on writing games about war and peaceIn this episode I talk with John Moser, the author of the Japan and July Crisis games and co-author of the Yalta game. We talk about how he learned about reacting, how to write games about diplomacy and politics, and his favorite Reacting story.
2020-06-2541 min
At This Moment with Jim Jefferies & Amos GillBees with Ted McFallIn this episode, the team covers bees with the help of Beekeeper Ted McFall. Thanks to our sponsors Raycon (code IDontKnow), OMAX Health (code Jim), Mack Weldon (code IDontKnow), and BlueChew (code Jim). Follow Us: Jim Jefferies Website: www.jimjefferies.com Jim Jefferies Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimjefferies/?hl=en Jim Jefferies Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JimJefferies/ Jim Jefferies Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimjefferies Forrest Shaw Website: www.forrestshaw.net Forrest Shaw Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forrestshaw/ Forrest Shaw Twitter: https://twitter.com/forrestshaw Kelly Blackheart Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyblackheart/ Jack Hackett Instagram: https://www.inst...
2020-06-231h 29New Books in Eastern European StudiesGabriel Finder, "Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland" (U Toronto Press, 2018)When Americans think about trials of Holocaust perpetrators, they generally think of the Nuremberg Trials or the trial of Adolf Eichmann or perhaps of the Frankfort trials of perpetrators from Auschwitz. If they think of Polish trials at all, they likely assume these were show trials driven by political goals rather than an interest in justice.Gabriel Finder and Alexander Prusin's book Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland (University of Toronto Press, 2018) shows that the truth was considerably more nuanced. The book is a comprehensive account of the trials of Nazi perpetrators co...
2020-06-221h 23New Books in Genocide StudiesGabriel Finder, "Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland" (U Toronto Press, 2018)When Americans think about trials of Holocaust perpetrators, they generally think of the Nuremberg Trials or the trial of Adolf Eichmann or perhaps of the Frankfort trials of perpetrators from Auschwitz. If they think of Polish trials at all, they likely assume these were show trials driven by political goals rather than an interest in justice.Gabriel Finder and Alexander Prusin's book Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland (University of Toronto Press, 2018) shows that the truth was considerably more nuanced. The book is a comprehensive account of the trials of Nazi perpetrators co...
2020-06-221h 23New Books in German StudiesGabriel Finder, "Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland" (U Toronto Press, 2018)When Americans think about trials of Holocaust perpetrators, they generally think of the Nuremberg Trials or the trial of Adolf Eichmann or perhaps of the Frankfort trials of perpetrators from Auschwitz. If they think of Polish trials at all, they likely assume these were show trials driven by political goals rather than an interest in justice.Gabriel Finder and Alexander Prusin's book Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland (University of Toronto Press, 2018) shows that the truth was considerably more nuanced. The book is a comprehensive account of the trials of Nazi perpetrators co...
2020-06-221h 23New Books in Genocide StudiesJohn K. Roth, "Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide" (Cascade Books, 2020)At Newman I co-teach a class titled "The Holocaust and its Legacies." I teach the course with a Professor of Theology and it's designed to help students understand the ways in which the Holocaust shaped the world they live in. It is, in a sense, designed to help students gain insight.John K. Roth's new book Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide (Cascade Books, 2020) may become a required text in this course. His book is different than, I think, any other books I’ve discussed on the show. It is a reflection, a tribute...
2020-06-151h 15New Books in German StudiesJohn K. Roth, "Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide" (Cascade Books, 2020)At Newman I co-teach a class titled "The Holocaust and its Legacies." I teach the course with a Professor of Theology and it's designed to help students understand the ways in which the Holocaust shaped the world they live in. It is, in a sense, designed to help students gain insight.John K. Roth's new book Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide (Cascade Books, 2020) may become a required text in this course. His book is different than, I think, any other books I’ve discussed on the show. It is a reflection, a tribute...
2020-06-151h 15Reacting to the PodcastAn Oral History of the RttP Annual InstituteOn what would have been the 20th RttP Annual Institute, Mark Carnes, John Burney, Pat Coby, Jenn Worth, Michaele Ferguson, David Worthington and Violet Lumani reflect on how the conference came to be, how it's changed since it began, and why it's so meaningful to them.
2020-06-141h 06
New Books in National SecurityJoyce E. Leader, "From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide" (Potomac Books, 2020)Earlier this year the world marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. An occasion for mourning and reflection also offered a chance to reflect on the state of research about the genocide.Among the many books that were published in the past year, Joyce E. Leader's new book From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide (Potomac Books, 2020) stands out. Leader was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Rwanda from 1991 through April 1994. As such, she was ideally positioned to witness Rwanda's slide into catastrophe. The book is an unusual combination of memoir, refle...
2020-06-051h 19New Books in Genocide StudiesJoyce E. Leader, "From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide" (Potomac Books, 2020)Earlier this year the world marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. An occasion for mourning and reflection also offered a chance to reflect on the state of research about the genocide.Among the many books that were published in the past year, Joyce E. Leader's new book From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide (Potomac Books, 2020) stands out. Leader was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Rwanda from 1991 through April 1994. As such, she was ideally positioned to witness Rwanda's slide into catastrophe. The book is an unusual combination of memoir, refle...
2020-06-051h 19
New Books in African StudiesJoyce E. Leader, "From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide" (Potomac Books, 2020)Earlier this year the world marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. An occasion for mourning and reflection also offered a chance to reflect on the state of research about the genocide.Among the many books that were published in the past year, Joyce E. Leader's new book From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide (Potomac Books, 2020) stands out. Leader was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Rwanda from 1991 through April 1994. As such, she was ideally positioned to witness Rwanda's slide into catastrophe. The book is an unusual combination of memoir, refle...
2020-06-051h 19New Books in Genocide StudiesA Discussion with Kelly McFall about Using "Reacting to the Past" in College CoursesHow best to teach history and, for that matter any social science subject, to college students? The traditional answer has been to lecture them. Given that the typical length of an attentive lecture-listener is about 15 minutes, this might not be the best way to get the job done.Beginning in the late 1990s, a group of professors offered another technique now called "Reacting to the Past." You can read all about it here. Essentially, the "Reacting" technique asks students to play the roles of historical actors and to re-enact particular events and situations. The instructors using the m...
2020-04-1352 minNew Books in National SecurityA Discussion with Kelly McFall about Using "Reacting to the Past" in College CoursesHow best to teach history and, for that matter any social science subject, to college students? The traditional answer has been to lecture them. Given that the typical length of an attentive lecture-listener is about 15 minutes, this might not be the best way to get the job done.Beginning in the late 1990s, a group of professors offered another technique now called "Reacting to the Past." You can read all about it here. Essentially, the "Reacting" technique asks students to play the roles of historical actors and to re-enact particular events and situations. The instructors using the m...
2020-04-1355 minNew Books in EducationA Discussion with Kelly McFall about Using "Reacting to the Past" in College CoursesHow best to teach history and, for that matter any social science subject, to college students? The traditional answer has been to lecture them. Given that the typical length of an attentive lecture-listener is about 15 minutes, this might not be the best way to get the job done.Beginning in the late 1990s, a group of professors offered another technique now called "Reacting to the Past." You can read all about it here. Essentially, the "Reacting" technique asks students to play the roles of historical actors and to re-enact particular events and situations. The instructors using the m...
2020-04-1355 minNew Books in German StudiesSteven Ross and Wolf Gruner, "New Perspectives on Krystallnacht" (Purdue UP, 2019)It's possible to organize a 20th-century German history course around the date 9 November. In 1918, Phillipp Schedemann proclaimed the creation of a new German Republic. In 1989, 9 November saw the opening of the Berlin Wall.In between, in 1938, Krystallnacht began on the night of 9 November. Krystallnacht, as most students of the Holocaust know, was a short, intense period of state-sponsored terror against those Germans identified as Jewish. It marked a dramatic escalation in the persecution of Jews in Germany.We often assume we know everything there is to know about such a well-studied event. But the contributions...
2020-03-051h 01New Books in Genocide StudiesSteven Ross and Wolf Gruner, "New Perspectives on Krystallnacht" (Purdue UP, 2019)It's possible to organize a 20th-century German history course around the date 9 November. In 1918, Phillipp Schedemann proclaimed the creation of a new German Republic. In 1989, 9 November saw the opening of the Berlin Wall.In between, in 1938, Krystallnacht began on the night of 9 November. Krystallnacht, as most students of the Holocaust know, was a short, intense period of state-sponsored terror against those Germans identified as Jewish. It marked a dramatic escalation in the persecution of Jews in Germany.We often assume we know everything there is to know about such a well-studied event. But the contributions...
2020-03-051h 01New Books in German StudiesWulf Gruner, "The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses" (Berghahn Books, 2019)Holocaust research tends to concentrate on certain geographic regions. We know much about the Holocaust in Poland, Germany and Western Europe. We are learning more and more about the 'Holocaust by Bullets' in the territories of the Soviet Union. This is obviously a good thing. But that emphasis leaves us knowing much less about other regions in Europe. In particular we know less about those areas annexed or subordinated to Germany before the outbreak of war in September of 1939.Wolf Gruner has devoted much of an extraordinarily productive career thinking about these territories. His most recent contribution...
2020-01-231h 03New Books in Genocide StudiesWulf Gruner, "The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses" (Berghahn Books, 2019)Holocaust research tends to concentrate on certain geographic regions. We know much about the Holocaust in Poland, Germany and Western Europe. We are learning more and more about the 'Holocaust by Bullets' in the territories of the Soviet Union. This is obviously a good thing. But that emphasis leaves us knowing much less about other regions in Europe. In particular we know less about those areas annexed or subordinated to Germany before the outbreak of war in September of 1939.Wolf Gruner has devoted much of an extraordinarily productive career thinking about these territories. His most recent contribution...
2020-01-231h 03New Books in German StudiesBrendan Simms, "Hitler: A Global Biography" (Basic Books, 2019)Every generation returns to the titanic heroes and villains of the 20th century. And every generation produces a new set of biographies--often immense--in an effort to understand the role of that eras main figures.In the past three years, three important new books have reassessed Hitler's life, beliefs and actions. Two of the authors, Volker Ulrich and Peter Longerich, are historians of Germany who are German. The third, our guest for today's interview, is British. In his new book Hitler: A Global Biography (Basic Books, 2019), Brendan Simms offers us a different Hitler, one much more focused on global...
2020-01-0829 minNew Books in German StudiesC. Browning, P. Hayes, R. Hilberg, "German Railroads, Jewish Souls" (Berghahn Books, 2019)Raul Hilberg was a giant in the field of Genocide and Holocaust Studies. Frequently cited as the founder of the field in the United States, Hilberg wrote, taught, and mentored for decades. In a series of influential books, he scouted out the terrain, mapped events, people and personalities, and offered lenses through which to view our field of study. His students and mentees embarked on their own journeys and, in their own ways, set an agenda we continue to pursue today.In German Railroads, Jewish Souls: The Reichsbahn, Bureaucracy, and the Final Solution (Berghahn Books, 2019), Christopher Browning an...
2019-11-2752 minNew Books in Genocide StudiesC. Browning, P. Hayes, R. Hilberg, "German Railroads, Jewish Souls" (Berghahn Books, 2019)Raul Hilberg was a giant in the field of Genocide and Holocaust Studies. Frequently cited as the founder of the field in the United States, Hilberg wrote, taught, and mentored for decades. In a series of influential books, he scouted out the terrain, mapped events, people and personalities, and offered lenses through which to view our field of study. His students and mentees embarked on their own journeys and, in their own ways, set an agenda we continue to pursue today.In German Railroads, Jewish Souls: The Reichsbahn, Bureaucracy, and the Final Solution (Berghahn Books, 2019), Christopher Browning an...
2019-11-2752 min
New Books in Southeast Asian StudiesAlexander L. Hinton, "Man or Monster?: The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer" (Duke UP, 2016)Can justice heal? Must there be justice in order to heal? Is there such a thing as justice, something to be striven for regardless of context?Alexander L. Hinton thinks through these questions in a pair of new books. The two are companion pieces, each using Cambodia in a different way as a lens through which to look at the notion of transitional justice. In The Justice Facade: Trials of Transition in Cambodia (Oxford University Press, 2018), he argues there is something deeply mistaken in the way thinkers and practitioners have imagined and employed transitional justice in the past...
2019-11-041h 17New Books in Genocide StudiesAlexander L. Hinton, "Man or Monster?: The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer" (Duke UP, 2016)Can justice heal? Must there be justice in order to heal? Is there such a thing as justice, something to be striven for regardless of context?Alexander L. Hinton thinks through these questions in a pair of new books. The two are companion pieces, each using Cambodia in a different way as a lens through which to look at the notion of transitional justice. In The Justice Facade: Trials of Transition in Cambodia (Oxford University Press, 2018), he argues there is something deeply mistaken in the way thinkers and practitioners have imagined and employed transitional justice in the past...
2019-11-041h 17New Books in German StudiesMark Roseman, "Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany" (Metropolitan Books, 2019)What makes some people aid the persecuted while others just stand by?Questions about rescue and resistance have been fundamental to the field of genocide studies since its inception. Mark Roseman offers a sophisticated and deeply human exploration of this question in his new book Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany (Metropolitan Books, 2019). The book is a careful examination of a small organization called “League: Community for Socialist Life.” Generally referred to by its German shorthand, the Bund was founded in the 1920s to inspire Germans to create a new, more ethical and mor...
2019-09-201h 05New Books in Genocide StudiesMark Roseman, "Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany" (Metropolitan Books, 2019)What makes some people aid the persecuted while others just stand by?Questions about rescue and resistance have been fundamental to the field of genocide studies since its inception. Mark Roseman offers a sophisticated and deeply human exploration of this question in his new book Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany (Metropolitan Books, 2019). The book is a careful examination of a small organization called “League: Community for Socialist Life.” Generally referred to by its German shorthand, the Bund was founded in the 1920s to inspire Germans to create a new, more ethical and mor...
2019-09-201h 05New Books in German StudiesEvgeny Finkel, "Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust" (Princeton UP, 2017)Can there be a political science of the Holocaust? Evgeny Finkel, in his new book Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust(Princeton University Press, 2017), answers Charles King's question with a resounding yes.Finkel is interested in a very specific question: What made individual Jews choose from a variety of different strategies in responding to the threat posed by German violence. He lays out several possible strategies for survival, ranging from cooperation and collaboration to coping and compliance to evasion and resistance. Each of these strategies offered very real possibilities and risked very real dangers. Jews...
2019-08-221h 00New Books in Genocide StudiesEvgeny Finkel, "Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust" (Princeton UP, 2017)Can there be a political science of the Holocaust? Evgeny Finkel, in his new book Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust(Princeton University Press, 2017), answers Charles King's question with a resounding yes.Finkel is interested in a very specific question: What made individual Jews choose from a variety of different strategies in responding to the threat posed by German violence. He lays out several possible strategies for survival, ranging from cooperation and collaboration to coping and compliance to evasion and resistance. Each of these strategies offered very real possibilities and risked very real dangers. Jews...
2019-08-221h 00New Books in Genocide StudiesMaureen S. Hiebert, "Constructing Genocide and Mass Violence: Society, Crisis, Identity" (Routledge, 2017)How can this happen? If there's any question that people interested in genocide ask, it's this one. How can people do this to each other? How can this be possible? What is wrong with this world that this can happen?Maureen Hiebert's book Constructing Genocide and Mass Violence: Society, Crisis, Identity (Routledge, 2017) offers an answer to this question. Hiebert is a political scientist and approaches the subject through that lens. She reminds us that societies engage in genocide because it offers the most plausible answer to their dilemma, but that many others in the same situation have...
2019-08-161h 09
New Books in Islamic StudiesDavid Gaunt, "Let Them Not Return" (Berghahn Books, 2017)Sometimes it seems that there’s nothing left to say about mass violence in the 20th century. But the new edited volume Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide Against the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire (Berghahn Books, 2017), draws our attention to a conflict that even most scholars know little about—the persecution and killing of Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians during and after the First World War.In the book, editors David Gaunt, Naures Atto, Soner O. Barthoma, provide a broad range of perspectives. With so little known about the violence, they provide...
2019-08-1352 minNew Books in Genocide StudiesDavid Gaunt, "Let Them Not Return" (Berghahn Books, 2017)Sometimes it seems that there’s nothing left to say about mass violence in the 20th century. But the new edited volume Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide Against the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire (Berghahn Books, 2017), draws our attention to a conflict that even most scholars know little about—the persecution and killing of Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians during and after the First World War.In the book, editors David Gaunt, Naures Atto, Soner O. Barthoma, provide a broad range of perspectives. With so little known about the violence, they provide...
2019-08-1352 minNew Books in Genocide StudiesErik Sjöberg, "The Making of the Greek Genocide: Contested Memories of the Ottoman Greek Catastrophe" (Berghahn Books, 2018)Most of the time, memory studies focuses on well-known case studies. The result Is that we know lots about commemoration and memory regarding the Holocaust, about slavery, about apartheid, and other cases, but much less about how memory works in smaller states and less well-known tragedies.Erik Sjöberg's new book The Making of the Greek Genocide: Contested Memories of the Ottoman Greek Catastrophe (Berghahn Books, 2018) is an exception to this rule. Sjöberg is interested in the violence and expulsion of ethnic Greeks from Anatolia before, during and especially after World War One. But the focus of his...
2019-07-011h 14New Books in Genocide StudiesPaul Thomas Chamberlin, "The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace" (Harper, 2018)Paul Thomas Chamberlin has written a book about the Cold War that makes important claims about the nature and reasons for genocide in the last half of the Twentieth Century. In The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace (Harper, 2018), Chamberlin reminds us that the Cold War was not at all Cold for hundreds of millions of people. He argues that the Soviet Union and the US competed fiercely over the states and people living in a wide swath of land starting in Manchuria, running south into South East Asia and then turning west into South Asia and t...
2019-06-131h 04New Books in National SecurityPaul Thomas Chamberlin, "The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace" (Harper, 2018)Paul Thomas Chamberlin has written a book about the Cold War that makes important claims about the nature and reasons for genocide in the last half of the Twentieth Century. In The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace (Harper, 2018), Chamberlin reminds us that the Cold War was not at all Cold for hundreds of millions of people. He argues that the Soviet Union and the US competed fiercely over the states and people living in a wide swath of land starting in Manchuria, running south into South East Asia and then turning west into South Asia and t...
2019-06-131h 04
New Books in Russian and Eurasian StudiesPaul Thomas Chamberlin, "The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace" (Harper, 2018)Paul Thomas Chamberlin has written a book about the Cold War that makes important claims about the nature and reasons for genocide in the last half of the Twentieth Century. In The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace (Harper, 2018), Chamberlin reminds us that the Cold War was not at all Cold for hundreds of millions of people. He argues that the Soviet Union and the US competed fiercely over the states and people living in a wide swath of land starting in Manchuria, running south into South East Asia and then turning west into South Asia and t...
2019-06-131h 04New Books in Southeast Asian StudiesPaul Thomas Chamberlin, "The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace" (Harper, 2018)Paul Thomas Chamberlin has written a book about the Cold War that makes important claims about the nature and reasons for genocide in the last half of the Twentieth Century. In The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace (Harper, 2018), Chamberlin reminds us that the Cold War was not at all Cold for hundreds of millions of people. He argues that the Soviet Union and the US competed fiercely over the states and people living in a wide swath of land starting in Manchuria, running south into South East Asia and then turning west into South Asia and t...
2019-06-131h 04New Books in African StudiesAndrew Wallis, "Stepp’d in Blood: Akazu and the Architects of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsis" (Zero Books, 2019)Last month Rwanda commemorated the 25th anniversary of the genocide. Unlike the recent outpouring of books marking hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War, there was only a short flurry of newspaper and radio remembrances of the events of April and May of 1994. The number of book-length narratives was similarly small.Now Andrew Wallis has published a significant new survey of the origins and aftermath of the genocide. Stepp’d in Blood: Akazu and the Architects of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsis (Zero Books, 2019), engages the deep roots of the genocide. Wallis argues that t...
2019-05-161h 06New Books in Genocide StudiesAndrew Wallis, "Stepp’d in Blood: Akazu and the Architects of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsis" (Zero Books, 2019)Last month Rwanda commemorated the 25th anniversary of the genocide. Unlike the recent outpouring of books marking hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War, there was only a short flurry of newspaper and radio remembrances of the events of April and May of 1994. The number of book-length narratives was similarly small.Now Andrew Wallis has published a significant new survey of the origins and aftermath of the genocide. Stepp’d in Blood: Akazu and the Architects of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsis (Zero Books, 2019), engages the deep roots of the genocide. Wallis argues that t...
2019-05-161h 06
New Books in Genocide StudiesVennessa Hearman, “Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia” (NUS Press, 2018)This interview is the fourth and and final interview in a short series of podcasts about the mass violence in Indonesia. Earlier this year I talked with Geoff Robinson, Jess Melvin and Kate McGregor and Annie Pohlman about their works.
All of them have written thoughtful, carefully researched and richly detailed analyses of the violence. Each of them shared a similar interest in the causes and nature of the violence. While their approaches varied, each attempted to shed new light on events which have been hidden or misrepresented.
Vannessa Hearman, in her new book Unmarked Grav...
2018-10-221h 13New Books in Southeast Asian StudiesVennessa Hearman, “Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia” (NUS Press, 2018)This interview is the fourth and and final interview in a short series of podcasts about the mass violence in Indonesia. Earlier this year I talked with Geoff Robinson, Jess Melvin and Kate McGregor and Annie Pohlman about their works.
All of them have written thoughtful, carefully researched and richly detailed analyses of the violence. Each of them shared a similar interest in the causes and nature of the violence. While their approaches varied, each attempted to shed new light on events which have been hidden or misrepresented.
Vannessa Hearman, in her new book Unmarked Grav...
2018-10-221h 13
New Books in Genocide StudiesRaz Segal, “Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown and Mass Violence, 1914-1945” (Stanford UP, 2016)Telling the history of the Holocaust in Hungary has long meant telling the story of 1944. Raz Segal, in his new book Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown and Mass Violence, 1914-1945 (Stanford University Press, 2016), reminds us that this is only part of the story, and that focusing on 1944 misleads us about the nature of the violence in Hungary and in much of Eastern Europe.
Segal’s book examines at a small area in the Carpathian mountains. By beginning in the 1800s, he is able to show that shared experiences and worldview shaped this area much more than...
2018-10-171h 16
New Books in German StudiesRaz Segal, “Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown and Mass Violence, 1914-1945” (Stanford UP, 2016)Telling the history of the Holocaust in Hungary has long meant telling the story of 1944. Raz Segal, in his new book Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown and Mass Violence, 1914-1945 (Stanford University Press, 2016), reminds us that this is only part of the story, and that focusing on 1944 misleads us about the nature of the violence in Hungary and in much of Eastern Europe.
Segal’s book examines at a small area in the Carpathian mountains. By beginning in the 1800s, he is able to show that shared experiences and worldview shaped this area much more than...
2018-10-171h 16
New Books in Genocide StudiesSara J. Brenneis, “Spaniards in Mauthausen: Representations of a Nazi Concentration Camp, 1940-2015” (U Toronto, 2018)To be quite honest, I had no idea there were any Spanish prisoners at Mauthausen.
That’s perhaps an unusual way to begin a blog post. But it reflects a real gap in the literature about the Holocaust, one that Sara J. Brenneis identifies and fills in her new book Spaniards in Mauthausen: Representations of a Nazi Concentration Camp, 1940-2015 (University of Toronto Press, 2018). Brenneis is interested in the ways Spanish prisoners (most of whom had fled Spain the aftermath of the Republican defeat in the Spanish Civil War) experienced the camp. She writes movingly about the efforts...
2018-10-101h 01
New Books in German StudiesSara J. Brenneis, “Spaniards in Mauthausen: Representations of a Nazi Concentration Camp, 1940-2015” (U Toronto, 2018)To be quite honest, I had no idea there were any Spanish prisoners at Mauthausen.
That’s perhaps an unusual way to begin a blog post. But it reflects a real gap in the literature about the Holocaust, one that Sara J. Brenneis identifies and fills in her new book Spaniards in Mauthausen: Representations of a Nazi Concentration Camp, 1940-2015 (University of Toronto Press, 2018). Brenneis is interested in the ways Spanish prisoners (most of whom had fled Spain the aftermath of the Republican defeat in the Spanish Civil War) experienced the camp. She writes movingly about the efforts...
2018-10-101h 01
New Books in Genocide StudiesJess Melvin, “The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder” (Routledge, 2018)It’s not often that you run across a smoking gun. Jess Melvin did, at an archive in Banda Aceh.
Since the massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66, academics, journalists, politicians and military officials have argued about the motivations for the killing. With little documentation to draw from, these debates relied on careful analysis of context and circumstance. The result was widespread disagreement about how centralized the killing was and whether the killing was planned in advance.
Melvin, in her new book The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018), puts some of these...
2018-10-0154 minNew Books in Southeast Asian StudiesJess Melvin, “The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder” (Routledge, 2018)It’s not often that you run across a smoking gun. Jess Melvin did, at an archive in Banda Aceh.
Since the massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66, academics, journalists, politicians and military officials have argued about the motivations for the killing. With little documentation to draw from, these debates relied on careful analysis of context and circumstance. The result was widespread disagreement about how centralized the killing was and whether the killing was planned in advance.
Melvin, in her new book The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018), puts some of these...
2018-10-0154 min
New Books in Genocide StudiesKatherine McGregor et al, “The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)I don’t often start these blog posts with comments about the cover art. But the reproduction of Alit Ambara’s “After 1965,” featured on the cover of the new set of essays The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), fits the subject perfectly. The piece compels your gaze, while resisting easy interpretations and answers.
I found the book much the same. The essays, edited by Katharine McGregor, Jess Melvin, Annie Pohlman, demand attention. Roughly divided into two sections, they range from military/political analyses to contemplations about the way the genocide left its mark on individual...
2018-07-2638 minNew Books in Southeast Asian StudiesKatherine McGregor et al, “The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)I don’t often start these blog posts with comments about the cover art. But the reproduction of Alit Ambara’s “After 1965,” featured on the cover of the new set of essays The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), fits the subject perfectly. The piece compels your gaze, while resisting easy interpretations and answers.
I found the book much the same. The essays, edited by Katharine McGregor, Jess Melvin, Annie Pohlman, demand attention. Roughly divided into two sections, they range from military/political analyses to contemplations about the way the genocide left its mark on individual...
2018-07-2638 min
New Books in Genocide StudiesHans-Lukas Kieser, “Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide” (Princeton UP, 2018)As a graduate student, I spent quite a bit of time explaining to people how we needed to pay much more attention to the history of World War One in the East. What I didn’t realize is that we needed to see the war as it appeared from Istanbul just as much or more as we needed to see it from Vienna, Warsaw or Budapest.
Hans-Lukas Kieser has played a critical role in beginning to flesh out our understanding of the war from an Ottoman perspective. His new political biography Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Arch...
2018-06-191h 22
New Books in Genocide StudiesGeoffrey Robinson, “The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-1966” (Princeton UP, 2018)I first assigned Joshua Oppenheimer’s film “The Act of Killing” for my course in Comparative Genocide at Newman. The movie is a documentary about the mass violence in Indonesia beginning in 1965. My students and I found it chilling: emotionally moving, troubling, and enormously sad. Naturally, they had many questions. I wasn’t able to answer many of them. It turned out, the killings in Indonesia had received far less attention than other cases of mass violence.
In the brief few years since then, this has started to change. So I’m going to devote three interviews to this topic. L...
2018-06-041h 22New Books in Southeast Asian StudiesGeoffrey Robinson, “The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-1966” (Princeton UP, 2018)I first assigned Joshua Oppenheimer’s film “The Act of Killing” for my course in Comparative Genocide at Newman. The movie is a documentary about the mass violence in Indonesia beginning in 1965. My students and I found it chilling: emotionally moving, troubling, and enormously sad. Naturally, they had many questions. I wasn’t able to answer many of them. It turned out, the killings in Indonesia had received far less attention than other cases of mass violence.
In the brief few years since then, this has started to change. So I’m going to devote three interviews to this topic. L...
2018-06-041h 22
New Books in Genocide StudiesJohn Nathaniel Clarke, “British Media and the Rwandan Genocide” (Routledge Press, 2018)It seems safe to assume that media coverage changes the behavior of politicians and voters. And it seems safe to assume this happens in cases of humanitarian crisis.
But it’s really hard to go beyond these platitudes to determine exactly how this feedback loop works. John Nathaniel Clarke’s new book, British Media and the Rwandan Genocide (Routledge, 2018), uses Rwanda as a test case to tease out the relationship between media coverage and policy. To do so, he uses carefully structured, labor intensive and analytically rich process to determine exactly what the media was reporting and writing...
2018-05-041h 11
New Books in JournalismJohn Nathaniel Clarke, “British Media and the Rwandan Genocide” (Routledge Press, 2018)It seems safe to assume that media coverage changes the behavior of politicians and voters. And it seems safe to assume this happens in cases of humanitarian crisis.
But it’s really hard to go beyond these platitudes to determine exactly how this feedback loop works. John Nathaniel Clarke’s new book, British Media and the Rwandan Genocide (Routledge, 2018), uses Rwanda as a test case to tease out the relationship between media coverage and policy. To do so, he uses carefully structured, labor intensive and analytically rich process to determine exactly what the media was reporting and writing...
2018-05-041h 11New Books in African StudiesJohn Nathaniel Clarke, “British Media and the Rwandan Genocide” (Routledge Press, 2018)It seems safe to assume that media coverage changes the behavior of politicians and voters. And it seems safe to assume this happens in cases of humanitarian crisis.
But it’s really hard to go beyond these platitudes to determine exactly how this feedback loop works. John Nathaniel Clarke’s new book, British Media and the Rwandan Genocide (Routledge, 2018), uses Rwanda as a test case to tease out the relationship between media coverage and policy. To do so, he uses carefully structured, labor intensive and analytically rich process to determine exactly what the media was reporting and writing...
2018-05-041h 11
New Books in ArchitectureJames Reston, Jr., “A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial” (Arcade Publishing, 2017)My students don’t remember Vietnam.
That’s hard to believe, for someone born in 1968. But it’s true, nonetheless. High school history courses rarely make it past World War Two. The Cold War and the Berlin Wall are mysteries. And Vietnam, unless someone in their family fought there, is just a country.
But most, if not all, of my students have heard of the Vietnam Memorial. They may not know what or who it commemorates. But they’ve seen it on class trips, or in textbooks. And they universally praise its power and simplicity. So, unle...
2018-03-0759 min
New Books in ArtJames Reston, Jr., “A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial” (Arcade Publishing, 2017)My students don’t remember Vietnam.
That’s hard to believe, for someone born in 1968. But it’s true, nonetheless. High school history courses rarely make it past World War Two. The Cold War and the Berlin Wall are mysteries. And Vietnam, unless someone in their family fought there, is just a country.
But most, if not all, of my students have heard of the Vietnam Memorial. They may not know what or who it commemorates. But they’ve seen it on class trips, or in textbooks. And they universally praise its power and simplicity. So, unle...
2018-03-0759 min
New Books in German StudiesOmer Bartov, “Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz” (Simon and Schuster, 2018)One of the most important developments in Holocaust Studies over the past couple decades has been one of scale. Rather than focus on decision making at the national or regional level, scholars are immersing themselves in the deep history of a small town or camp. In doing so you may miss the debates of diplomats and politicians. But you get a much better idea of how people actually experienced the Holocaust.
Omer Bartov’s new book Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz (Simon and Schuster, 2018) is a superb example of th...
2018-01-301h 05
New Books in Genocide StudiesOmer Bartov, “Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz” (Simon and Schuster, 2018)One of the most important developments in Holocaust Studies over the past couple decades has been one of scale. Rather than focus on decision making at the national or regional level, scholars are immersing themselves in the deep history of a small town or camp. In doing so you may miss the debates of diplomats and politicians. But you get a much better idea of how people actually experienced the Holocaust.
Omer Bartov’s new book Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz (Simon and Schuster, 2018) is a superb example of th...
2018-01-301h 05
New Books in MedicineSamuel Totten, “Sudan’s Nuba Mountains People Under Siege” (McFarland, 2017)This podcast is usually devoted to book written about the past. The authors may be historians, or political scientists, or anthropologists, or even a member of the human rights community. But we’re almost always talking about a mass atrocity that took place ‘before.’
Sam Totten‘s new book Sudan’s Nuba Mountains People Under Siege: Accounts by Humanitarians in the Battle Zone (McFarland, 2017) is different. The book is a compilation of first hand accounts of people currently working in a crisis area. Some of are doctors, some journalists, some aid workers. Their contributions to the book are intens...
2018-01-241h 07New Books in African StudiesSamuel Totten, “Sudan’s Nuba Mountains People Under Siege” (McFarland, 2017)This podcast is usually devoted to book written about the past. The authors may be historians, or political scientists, or anthropologists, or even a member of the human rights community. But we’re almost always talking about a mass atrocity that took place ‘before.’
Sam Totten‘s new book Sudan’s Nuba Mountains People Under Siege: Accounts by Humanitarians in the Battle Zone (McFarland, 2017) is different. The book is a compilation of first hand accounts of people currently working in a crisis area. Some of are doctors, some journalists, some aid workers. Their contributions to the book are intens...
2018-01-241h 07
New Books in Genocide StudiesSamuel Totten, “Sudan’s Nuba Mountains People Under Siege” (McFarland, 2017)This podcast is usually devoted to book written about the past. The authors may be historians, or political scientists, or anthropologists, or even a member of the human rights community. But we’re almost always talking about a mass atrocity that took place ‘before.’
Sam Totten‘s new book Sudan’s Nuba Mountains People Under Siege: Accounts by Humanitarians in the Battle Zone (McFarland, 2017) is different. The book is a compilation of first hand accounts of people currently working in a crisis area. Some of are doctors, some journalists, some aid workers. Their contributions to the book are intens...
2018-01-241h 07New Books in African StudiesHerman Salton, “Dangerous Diplomacy: Bureaucracy, Power Politics and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda” (Oxford UP, 2017)I was in graduate school during Bosnia and Rwanda. Like everyone else, I watched the video footage and journalistic accounts that came from these two zones of atrocity. Like everyone else, I wondered how humans could do such things to each other. And like everyone else, I asked in anguish “why can’t we do something.”
Much of the scholarship about Rwanda focuses on this question. Most of it is good, solid, passionate work. but as Herman Salton points out, it largely concentrates on nation-states and their interaction with each other.
Salton’s new book, Dangerou...
2018-01-081h 25
New Books in Genocide StudiesHerman Salton, “Dangerous Diplomacy: Bureaucracy, Power Politics and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda” (Oxford UP, 2017)I was in graduate school during Bosnia and Rwanda. Like everyone else, I watched the video footage and journalistic accounts that came from these two zones of atrocity. Like everyone else, I wondered how humans could do such things to each other. And like everyone else, I asked in anguish “why can’t we do something.”
Much of the scholarship about Rwanda focuses on this question. Most of it is good, solid, passionate work. but as Herman Salton points out, it largely concentrates on nation-states and their interaction with each other.
Salton’s new book, Dangerou...
2018-01-081h 25
New Books in Genocide StudiesSara E. Brown, “Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Rescuers and Perpetrators” (Routledge, 2017)Thanks to Scott Straus, Leanne Fujii and others, we know quite a bit about how men behaved during the genocide in Rwanda. But we know surprisingly little about women’s actions during that crisis.
Sara Brown begins to remedy this in her excellent new study Gender and Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Rescuers and Perpetrators (Routledge, 2017). Sara spent months interviewing Rwandan women. The result is a thoughtful analysis of the role gender played in facilitating or discouraging rescue and violence. As Brown says in the interview, she starts by asking the most basic question: how many, where, ho...
2017-11-281h 06New Books in African StudiesSara E. Brown, “Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Rescuers and Perpetrators” (Routledge, 2017)Thanks to Scott Straus, Leanne Fujii and others, we know quite a bit about how men behaved during the genocide in Rwanda. But we know surprisingly little about women’s actions during that crisis.
Sara Brown begins to remedy this in her excellent new study Gender and Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Rescuers and Perpetrators (Routledge, 2017). Sara spent months interviewing Rwandan women. The result is a thoughtful analysis of the role gender played in facilitating or discouraging rescue and violence. As Brown says in the interview, she starts by asking the most basic question: how many, where, ho...
2017-11-281h 06
New Books in Genocide StudiesMichael Bryant,” A World History of War Crimes: From Antiquity to the Present,” (Bloomsbury, 2016)Michael Bryant’s book is both less and more ambitious than its title. He’s writing less of a history of war crimes than he is a history of the idea and concept of war crimes. He’s most interested in what people have considered a breach of the norms of warfare and how this concept has changed over time.
The triumph of A World History of War Crimes: From Antiquity to the Present (Bloomsbury, 2016) is it’s reminder that, while expectations about how soldiers (and others) would act during warfare are not new at all, the notion o...
2017-05-181h 14
New Books in Genocide StudiesAnuradha Chakravarty, “Investing in Authoritarian Rule: Punishment and Patronage in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts for Genocide Crimes,” (Cambridge UP, 2016)In my time doing this podcast, I’ve covered a number of books about transitional justice. All have been insightful and interesting. But few of them focused carefully on the trials themselves.
Anuradha Chakravarty seeks to remedy this. Her book Investing in Authoritarian Rule: Punishment and Patronage in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts for Genocide Crimes (Cambridge University Press, 2016) looks carefully at the processes and people involved in Rwanda’s Gacaca courts. She looks at the recruitment and training of judges. She looks at the incentives offered for denouncing others as genocidaires. And she examines the ways in which...
2017-03-281h 05New Books in African StudiesAnuradha Chakravarty, “Investing in Authoritarian Rule: Punishment and Patronage in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts for Genocide Crimes,” (Cambridge UP, 2016)In my time doing this podcast, I’ve covered a number of books about transitional justice. All have been insightful and interesting. But few of them focused carefully on the trials themselves.
Anuradha Chakravarty seeks to remedy this. Her book Investing in Authoritarian Rule: Punishment and Patronage in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts for Genocide Crimes (Cambridge University Press, 2016) looks carefully at the processes and people involved in Rwanda’s Gacaca courts. She looks at the recruitment and training of judges. She looks at the incentives offered for denouncing others as genocidaires. And she examines the ways in which...
2017-03-281h 05
New Books in Genocide StudiesEdward Westermann, “Hitler’s Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars: Comparing Genocide and Conquest” (U. Oklahoma Press, 2016)The intersection of colonialism and mass atrocities is one of the most exciting insights of the past years of genocide studies. But most people don’t really think of the Soviet Union and the American west as colonial spaces. But while there are limitations to this, both fit well into a kind of geography of colonialism.
This is why Edward Westermann‘s new book Hitler’s Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars: Comparing Genocide and Conquest (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016)is so interesting. Westermann teaches at Texas A & M University at San Antonio. Prior to this work, he wrote...
2017-03-0259 min
New Books in Native American StudiesEdward Westermann, “Hitler’s Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars: Comparing Genocide and Conquest” (U. Oklahoma Press, 2016)The intersection of colonialism and mass atrocities is one of the most exciting insights of the past years of genocide studies. But most people don’t really think of the Soviet Union and the American west as colonial spaces. But while there are limitations to this, both fit well into a kind of geography of colonialism.
This is why Edward Westermann‘s new book Hitler’s Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars: Comparing Genocide and Conquest (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016)is so interesting. Westermann teaches at Texas A & M University at San Antonio. Prior to this work, he wrote...
2017-03-0259 min
New Books in Genocide StudiesFerenc Laczo, “Hungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide: An Intellectual History, 1929-1948” (Brill, 2016)For non-specialists, the Holocaust in Hungary is a history both familiar and murky. Many Americans have read memoirs like Elie Wiesel’s Night and Judith Magyar Isaacson’s Seeds of Sarah in high school or college and have some sense of their experience. But the actual history of Hungary and the Holocaust remains opaque.
Ferenc Laczo aims to change this. Laczo, an associate professor of history at Maastricht University, has produced a fascinating examination of a series of dialogues unfamiliar to most historians. His new book Hungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide: An Intellectual History (Brill, 2016) exam...
2017-02-151h 05
New Books in Latin American StudiesElizabeth Oglesby and Diane Nelson, “Guatemala: The Question of Genocide,” The Journal of Genocide Research” (Taylor and Frances, 2016)What difference can a trial make, really? In Guatemala: The Question of Genocide (Taylor and Frances, 2016), Elizabeth Obglesby and Diane Nelson start from this question to examine much more broadly the memory and politics of genocide in Guatemala.
To do so, they invited many of the scholars familiar with the conflict in Guatemala to reflect on the role genocide has played in that country. Many authors are Guatemalan, others have worked in the country for years or decades. The result is a wide-ranging, perceptive group of essays published as a special issue of the Journal of Genocide...
2016-12-2358 min
New Books in Genocide StudiesElizabeth Oglesby and Diane Nelson, “Guatemala: The Question of Genocide,” The Journal of Genocide Research” (Taylor and Frances, 2016)What difference can a trial make, really? In Guatemala: The Question of Genocide (Taylor and Frances, 2016), Elizabeth Obglesby and Diane Nelson start from this question to examine much more broadly the memory and politics of genocide in Guatemala.
To do so, they invited many of the scholars familiar with the conflict in Guatemala to reflect on the role genocide has played in that country. Many authors are Guatemalan, others have worked in the country for years or decades. The result is a wide-ranging, perceptive group of essays published as a special issue of the Journal of Genocide...
2016-12-2358 min
New Books in Genocide StudiesJoshua Zimmerman, “The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945” (Cambridge UP, 2015)Some books fly high above the field, making sweeping generalizations about big questions.
Other books circle over a specific problem, analyzing it in great detail to say something important about a single subject.
Joshua Zimmerman‘s The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2015) shows how important and valuable books that adopt the latter approach can be. The book is an exceptionally rich account of the attitudes, politics, policies and actions of the Polish Underground regarding Polish Jews during the Second World War. Zimmerman, Associate Professor of History at Yeshiva University in New Yo...
2016-03-181h 48