The Genocidal Temptation: Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Rwanda, and Beyond

by Harald Runblom (Contribution by), Darrell J. Fasching (Contribution by), Eric Markusen (Contribution by), Samuel Totten (Contribution by), Henry R. Huttenbach (Contribution by)

Overview

The fact that Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and Rwanda cast ominous shadows forward into the future compels us to confront these horrific results of the human head, heart, and hand. In Genocidal Temptation, Robert Frey presents a compelling, integrated focus directed toward the Nazi killing programs, American atomic bombings in Japan, Tutsi massacres in Rwanda, Soviet genocide in Lithuania, and other mass killing and repression programs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761827436
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/10/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Robert S. Frey is Editor/Publisher, BRIDGES: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and Vice President, Knowledge Management & Proposal Development for an award-winning information technology company.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Ethics After Auschwitz and Hiroshima
Chapter 4 Reflections on the Holocaust and Hiroshima
Chapter 5 To Deem nor Not to Deem "It" Genocide: A Double-Edged Sword
Chapter 6 More Than Genocide: Rwanda Revisited (Before and After 1994)
Chapter 7 Afraid to Call Genocide Genocide? Reflections on Rwanda and Beyond
Chapter 8 "We Call It Genocide": Soviet Deportations and Repression in the Memory of Lithuanians
Chapter 9 The United States and the "G-Word": Genocide and Denial Before and Beyond Rwanda
Chapter 10 Are We All Nazis?: Man's Inhumanity to Man and Goldhagen's Holocaustbabble
Chapter 11 The Holocaust and the MBA: A Suggestion
Chapter 12 Romancing the Apocalypse, or: Why We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb
Chapter 13 Naturalizing Moral Agency: A Critical Review of Some Recent Works on the Biological and Psychological Bases of Human Morality
Chapter 14 Despair and Hope in Post-Shoah Jewish Life
Chapter 15 Auschwitz and Hiroshima
Chapter 16 Hiroshima and the "Auschwitz Principle": Günther Anders' Theory of Industrial Killing
Chapter 17 Hiroshima, Mon Amour?
Chapter 18 The Power of Individual Decision Making in Generating Hope in the Twentieth- First Century: Neutralizing Genocidal Tendencies
Chapter 19 Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Icons of Our Century
Chapter 20 About the Contributors
Chapter 21 Subject and Name Index

Editorial Reviews

Far more than just another collection of 'lest we forget' essays, this volume of original, current perspectives on the Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries breaks important new ground by focusing on 'genocidal temptations' of the present and future as well as the past. By including the work of established scholars in philosophy and theology along with history and psychology, the editor has successfully organized an innovative, comprehensive analysis of the seductive rationalizations leading to massive outbreaks of human destruction. It could well be an essential life preserver as we face the threatening uncertainties of the new millennium.

Dr. Leon Rappoport

A rich discussion of why genocide happens and what can be done to prevent it. ...Through definitional preciseness, concerned with avoiding a definitional process that dehumanizes conflict, and the adept marshalling of theological arguments, Frey's collection poses important and haunting questions. His multidisciplinary approach is a provocative introduction for the student interested in the topic of genocide and willing to grapple with it complexities.

Harvard Human Rights Journal - Sarah Rice

This unique collection of essays by renowned scholars from many disciplines offers current reflections upon major incidents of genocides that have plagued us in the 20th century. One of the disturbing theses of this volume is the prediction that the 'genocidal temptation' might increase in the future in proportion to our ever-expanding technological and bureaucratic power unless we find ways and means to control this terrifying menace.

Dr. Viktoria Hertling

By drawing on diverse disciplines and theories, Robert Frey's collection of essays makes an important contribution to Holocaust and Genocide history. Scholars will find particularly interesting the contributions on neutralizing genocidal tendencies and those dealing with trauma and memory in the wake of the Holocaust. The essays on Hiroshima, too, will spark a needed discussion about what constitutes genocide and the dangers of comparative victimization.

Jonathan C. Friedman

With genocide, an inescapable part of what Hannah Arendt called the 'terrible century' just past, raising serious questions is more important than presuming definitive answers. What I most appreciate about this book, dedicated to the exploration of genocide through various disciplinary perspectives and particular instances, is precisely the way in which the authors challengingly pose such questions. Fresh and sometimes irreverent in their approaches, the contributors place mass killing inescapably on our collective agenda. That is why I recommend this book with real enthusiasm.

Michael R. Marrus

Robert Frey makes a significant contribution by compiling the reflections of key scholars who have thought long and hard about the Holocaust and other genocides. While warning that the temptations of genocide have not diminished with the twenty-first century's arrival they also help to show how those temptations may best be resisted. In these provocative pages, anguish and hope mix and mingle urgently.

John K. Roth

A rich discussion of why genocide happens and what can be done to prevent it. ...Through definitional preciseness, concerned with avoiding a definitional process that dehumanizes conflict, and the adept marshalling of theological arguments, Frey's collection poses important and haunting questions. His multidisciplinary approach is a provocative introduction for the student interested in the topic of genocide and willing to grapple with it complexities.--Sarah Rice "Harvard Human Rights Journal "

By drawing on diverse disciplines and theories, Robert Frey's collection of essays makes an important contribution to Holocaust and Genocide history. Scholars will find particularly interesting the contributions on neutralizing genocidal tendencies and those dealing with trauma and memory in the wake of the Holocaust. The essays on Hiroshima, too, will spark a needed discussion about what constitutes genocide and the dangers of comparative victimization.--Jonathan C. Friedman, Ph.D., Director, Holocaust and Genocide Education Center, West Chester University

Robert Frey makes a significant contribution by compiling the reflections of key scholars who have thought long and hard about the Holocaust and other genocides. While warning that the temptations of genocide have not diminished with the twenty-first century's arrival they also help to show how those temptations may best be resisted. In these provocative pages, anguish and hope mix and mingle urgently.--John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy and director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College

From the Publisher

A rich discussion of why genocide happens and what can be done to prevent it. ...Through definitional preciseness, concerned with avoiding a definitional process that dehumanizes conflict, and the adept marshalling of theological arguments, Frey's collection poses important and haunting questions. His multidisciplinary approach is a provocative introduction for the student interested in the topic of genocide and willing to grapple with it complexities.
— Sarah Rice

Harvard Human Rights Journal