Perspectives on Politics

Table of Contents - June 2012 - Volume 10, Issue 02  

Symposium: Genocide And The Psychology of Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Victims

Genocide and the Psychology of Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Victims

A Discussion of Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide: Identity and Moral Choice

Kristina E. Thalhammera1

a1 St. Olaf College

Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide: Identity and Moral Choice. By Kristen Renwick Monroe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. 437p. $35.00 paper.

Abstract

We live in a world laced with forms of political violence. Kristen Renwick Monroe's latest work develops an interesting social psychological account of the conduct of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders of the most extreme form of violence—genocide. It also employs an interesting narrative approach that contributes to broad methodological discussions in political science about the ways in which subjective experience can best be understood. We have thus invited a diverse group of political scientists and historians to comment on the book's analysis of political violence and on its broader approach to the study of politics.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor

Kristina E. Thalhammer is Professor of Political Science at St. Olaf College.

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