Book report: Eric D Weitz a Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation
Eric D Weitz’s a Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation focuses on four key genocides – the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cambodia and the Bosnian war. The topics discussed are very popular, particularly Nazi-Germany and Stalinist Russia, which is worth noting as someone well-read in the topic may not gain any further knowledge from this. A Dean at the City College of New York, who has previously written books on Weimar Germany, communism in Germany and A Century of Genocide. This reflects upon Weitz’s knowledge of German history and that his knowledge may perhaps be lacking on the other topics raised within this book. Noting on the title of this book, the reader …show more content…
Over time, the regimes ideology focused on a concept of a purely Russian nation, resulting in many German ethnics, Chechens, Tatars, and Koreans being targeted. This continued up until the 1950’s, throughout World War Two and leading to the fall of the USSR, corroborating his statement. This argument however, is a popular one which doesn’t provide much new information, Syrine C. Hout is someone who supports this, viewing the information supplied as something experts and those reading into the subject will already be familiar with, as his writing is nothing short of refreshing . This is a common statement, however another sub-argument brought up throughout this book is how utopia leads to disaster, this is something that could have been explored greatly, yet Weitz skims over it making the argument within this book slightly weaker. Weitz’s use of a variety of sources, for example trial records, memoires, novels and poems to explore his argument, which provide insight and accuracy to the genocides discussed. Despite his lack of depth within his book Weitz has succeeded in the broad scale of sources provided. However, there is little insight to the victims and what the idea of genocide meant to them, this is something Eliezer Ben-Rafael explores and makes note on how Weitz only considers …show more content…
Looking at Benjamin Valentino's, ‘Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century’, there is a difference in the methods used on each book. Although both authors discuss similar topics, these being the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Valentino can adapt an alternative approach which makes his book more knowledgeable. He argues that leaders, instead of societies are to blame for genocides, explaining that these leaders use mass killings to serve their own interests and that genocide is rarely a policy of first resort . Valentino also identifies six motives for genocide: communism, ethnicity, territory, counterguerrilla, terrorism and imperialism. He then includes examples of genocides within these themes, which widens the knowledge capacity of his book, a contrast to Weitz where he has focused on particular events and the societies within them, limiting the comparisons he is able to make, thus limiting the knowledge of his
Eric D Weitz’s a Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation focuses on four key genocides – the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cambodia and the Bosnian war. The topics discussed are very popular, particularly Nazi-Germany and Stalinist Russia, which is worth noting as someone well-read in the topic may not gain any further knowledge from this. A Dean at the City College of New York, who has previously written books on Weimar Germany, communism in Germany and A Century of Genocide. This reflects upon Weitz’s knowledge of German history and that his knowledge may perhaps be lacking on the other topics raised within this book. Noting on the title of this book, the reader …show more content…
Over time, the regimes ideology focused on a concept of a purely Russian nation, resulting in many German ethnics, Chechens, Tatars, and Koreans being targeted. This continued up until the 1950’s, throughout World War Two and leading to the fall of the USSR, corroborating his statement. This argument however, is a popular one which doesn’t provide much new information, Syrine C. Hout is someone who supports this, viewing the information supplied as something experts and those reading into the subject will already be familiar with, as his writing is nothing short of refreshing . This is a common statement, however another sub-argument brought up throughout this book is how utopia leads to disaster, this is something that could have been explored greatly, yet Weitz skims over it making the argument within this book slightly weaker. Weitz’s use of a variety of sources, for example trial records, memoires, novels and poems to explore his argument, which provide insight and accuracy to the genocides discussed. Despite his lack of depth within his book Weitz has succeeded in the broad scale of sources provided. However, there is little insight to the victims and what the idea of genocide meant to them, this is something Eliezer Ben-Rafael explores and makes note on how Weitz only considers …show more content…
Looking at Benjamin Valentino's, ‘Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century’, there is a difference in the methods used on each book. Although both authors discuss similar topics, these being the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Valentino can adapt an alternative approach which makes his book more knowledgeable. He argues that leaders, instead of societies are to blame for genocides, explaining that these leaders use mass killings to serve their own interests and that genocide is rarely a policy of first resort . Valentino also identifies six motives for genocide: communism, ethnicity, territory, counterguerrilla, terrorism and imperialism. He then includes examples of genocides within these themes, which widens the knowledge capacity of his book, a contrast to Weitz where he has focused on particular events and the societies within them, limiting the comparisons he is able to make, thus limiting the knowledge of his