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Podcast: New Books in Genocide Studies
Episode: Christian Gerlach, “Extremely Violent Societies in the Twentieth Century” (Cambridge UP, 2010)
Description: What if genocide scholars have been approaching the field the wrong way?
When I first opened Extremely Violent Societies in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2010), I was immediately struck by the immense depth of research and learning. Christian Gerlach chooses his case studies from among the lesser studied cases of genocide and immersed himself in the literature. Moreover, he surveys the history and theory of counterinsurgency warfare in roughly 20 countries over the space of 50 years. His knowledge of the field is encyclopedic, and one must admire his tenacity, not to mention the persuasiveness clearly necessary to...