Rape: Weapon of War and Genocide

by Carol Rittner, John K. Roth

Overview

Here is a volume that cries out to be read by everyone. It is filled with "texts of terror" that must be heard if the human community is truly to respond "Never again!" —Margaret A. Farley, Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics, Yale University Divinity School. . . One of the most nuanced, illuminating, and grimly engaging volumes on rape and mass violence yet published. — Adam Jones, Executive Director, Gendercide Watch, Author, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction Carol Rittner and John K. Roth have brought together a range of very powerful contributions on rape in war and genocide . . . Each chapter deals very personally with the agony of rape and the challenges it poses to male behavior, international law, and political action. — Hugo Slim, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford, Author, Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in WarResist the urge to put this book down. It . . . calls us to listen to the living and the dead, to their words and their silence. — Doris L. Bergen, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies, University of Toronto, Author, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557788986
Publisher:	Paragon House Publishers
Publication date:	09/01/2012
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Carol Rittner, R.S.M., is distinguished professor of holocaust and genocide studies at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

Genocide studies experts Rittner and Roth (co-editors of Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust) have assembled a tool kit for activists and an informative alarm for general readers with this collection of original essays by distinguished genocide scholars. An effective and affecting immediacy is achieved as each writer uses a particular document (interview, personal letter, trial transcript, formal report) as a point of departure, and many chapters include thought-provoking discussion questions and pertinent suggested readings. From various professional perspectives, the writers reveal that “rape-as-policy—intentional and systematic uses of rape as a weapon of war and genocide—has loomed larger and larger.” Essays convey the horrors experienced by Jewish victims of Nazi genocide, victims of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War, Guatemalan victims of femicide, and Tutsi victims of all three. Others analyze rape as a tool of “othering” (“the obliteration of a common ground between perpetrators and victims”), assess films treating war and genocide, and consider the development of laws that have the power to protect and to punish. “Rape,” as one writer observes, in this grim book, “is a sadly effective weapon of war.” That this is a painful book to read should not prevent it from being read. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly