Samuel Totten is a scholar of genocide studies and professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas.
Centuries of Genocide uniquely combines cutting-edge scholarship on more than fifteen historical cases of genocide with deeply humanizing - and impactful - first-hand accounts of their victims and survivors. Updated to now include critical cases of genocide that have unfolded in the twenty-first century, this new edition remains an essential teaching text in the field by offering undergraduate and graduate students a comprehensive comparative analysis of the causes and impacts of genocidal violence while engaging with potential strategies for its future prevention. - Nevin T. Aiken, University of Wyoming After centuries of indifference and inaction towards genocide, it is time to get serious about preventing such atrocities. Knowledge is the first step toward caring enough to act. This comprehensive and authoritative volume will motivate scholars, activists, and public officials to take that step, cognizant of the challenges that must be overcome to effectively confront this stain on humanity. - Paul Slovic, University of Oregon Moments of genocide in history often get lost in numbers of dead, brief us/them narratives, and misrepresentations of out-of-control evil. It is too easy to forget that the lives lost were individuals and communities - all with unique beliefs, dreams, and families. Centuries of Genocide provides analysis of various large-scale genocidal atrocities but also includes eyewitness accounts, testimony, and reflections, which humanize the victims of seemingly inhuman mass destructiveness. - Linda M. Woolf, Webster University The fifth edition of this classic textbook includes updates on previously acknowledged genocides, such as of Armenians, Jewish-Europeans, Cambodians, and Rwandans, while bringing attention to important ongoing cases. Essays and accounts focus on victims, governments, militaries, and militias such as in settler-era California, the Cold War regimes of Argentina, juntas of Myanmar, and others which, with Totten's new additions on ISIS and China, make this a comprehensive collection. - Christopher Harrison, Northern Arizona University