BOOK REVIEWS: COMPARATIVE POLITICS | |
The Order of Genocide
Martin
Shaw
a1
a1 University of Sussex
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The
Order
of
Genocide. By Scott Straus. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2006. 273p. $27.95.
Studies of the 1994 Rwandan genocide have moved, Scott Straus argues,
beyond simplistic interpretations in terms of “tribal” or
“ancient” hatreds (interpretations that were, in truth, more
those of the media and politicians than of the early academic literature)
toward a “new consensus” that this was a modern genocide based
on elite planning, nationalist ideology, and media manipulation. Straus
argues that while this is not wrong, it does not go far enough to explain
why genocide happened and why so many Hutus were mobilized to kill their
Tutsi neighbors as well as moderate Hutus. Emphasizing the need to link
the national, elite level on which most study has focused with the local
level in the rural areas where most killing was done, Straus undertook a
unique study, interviewing more than two hundred confessed and convicted
male perpetrators in Rwanda's jails.
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