Final Solutions

Download or read book Final Solutions written by Benjamin A. Valentino and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-19 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benjamin A. Valentino finds that ethnic hatreds or discrimination, undemocratic systems of government, and dysfunctions in society play a much smaller role in mass killing and genocide than is commonly assumed. He shows that the impetus for mass killing usually originates from a relatively small group of powerful leaders and is often carried out without the active support of broader society. Mass killing, in his view, is a brutal political or military strategy designed to accomplish leaders' most important objectives, counter threats to their power, and solve their most difficult problems. In order to capture the full scope of mass killing during the twentieth century, Valentino does not limit his analysis to violence directed against ethnic groups, or to the attempt to destroy victim groups as such, as do most previous studies of genocide. Rather, he defines mass killing broadly as the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants, using the criteria of 50,000 or more deaths within five years as a quantitative standard. Final Solutions focuses on three types of mass killing: communist mass killings like the ones carried out in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia; ethnic genocides as in Armenia, Nazi Germany, and Rwanda; and "counter-guerrilla" campaigns including the brutal civil war in Guatemala and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Valentino closes the book by arguing that attempts to prevent mass killing should focus on disarming and removing from power the leaders and small groups responsible for instigating and organizing the killing.

Download or read book Final Solutions written by Richard M. Lerner and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nature-nurture debate continues to stir controversy in the social and behavioral sciences. How much of human behavior and development can be attributed to biology and how much to the environment? Can either be said to &“determine&” human development? And what are the implications of each view for society? In this important study, a noted developmental psychologist contributes to this debate by confronting the difficult issue of &“doctrines&” of human development and the consequences for society of deriving political programs and public policy from them. Beginning with the premise that scientific ideas are not neutral but can be used for either good or evil, Richard Lerner considers the recent history of one such idea, biological determinism, which at times has had the backing of respected scientists, intellectuals, and political leaders. During this century, biological determinism has been coupled with political philosophies that hold that some people are inherently better than others. This has meant that certain groups of people&—Jews, Blacks, Native Americans, women&—have been stigmatized because of supposedly innate, even &“biological,&” differences, with sometimes disastrous consequences. The most notorious instance was Nazi Germany, where &“racial science,&” given legitimacy by the scientific community, became a cornerstone of the Nazi &“Final Solution.&” Meanwhile, theories of biological determinism continue to find adherents within the scientific community. Konrad Lorenz, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1973, was a critical figure in the development of the most recent manifestation of biological determinism&—sociobiology. Lerner examines the work of Lorenz and current sociobiologists and the implications of their claims for modern society. He fears that biological determinism may again be co-opted to serve the political agenda of today&’s reactionary politicians. In fact, Lerner notes, sociobiologists have had to face the fact that organizations such as the fascist National Front party in Britain and its counterparts in France and the United States have selectively seized upon sociobiology to fuel their notions of genetically superior and inferior races.

Download or read book Final Solution written by David Cesarani and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 1401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Cesarani’s Final Solution is a magisterial work of history that chronicles the fate of Europe’s Jews. Based on decades of scholarship, documentation newly available from the opening of Soviet archives, declassification of Western intelligence service records, as well as diaries and reports written in the camps, Cesarani provides a sweeping reappraisal that challenges accepted explanations for the anti-Jewish politics of Nazi Germany and the inevitability of the “final solution.” The persecution of the Jews, as Cesarani sees it, was not always the Nazis’ central preoccupation, nor was it inevitable. He shows how, in German-occupied countries, it unfolded erratically, often due to local initiatives. For Cesarani, war was critical to the Jewish fate. Military failure denied the Germans opportunities to expel Jews into a distant territory and created a crisis of resources that led to the starvation of the ghettos and intensified anti-Jewish measures. Looking at the historical record, he disputes the iconic role of railways and deportation trains. From prisoner diaries, he exposes the extent of sexual violence and abuse of Jewish women and follows the journey of some Jewish prisoners to displaced persons camps. David Cesarani’s Final Solution is the new standard chronicle of the fate of a heroic people caught in the hell that was Hitler’s Germany.

Download or read book Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution written by Ian Kershaw and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-05-28 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a comprehensive, multifaceted picture both of the destructive dynamic of the Nazi leadership and of the attitudes and behavior of ordinary Germans as the persecution of the Jews spiraled into total genocide.

Download or read book The Final Solution written by David Cesarani and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Final Solution clarifies the key questions surrounding the attempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. Drawing on important new research, these authoritative essays focus on the preconditions and antecedents for the 'Final Solution' and examine the immediate origins of the genocidal decision. Contributors also examine the responses of peoples and governments in Germany, occupied Europe, the USA and among Jews worldwide. The controversial conversions of this study challenge many of our accepted ideas about the period.

Download or read book Final Solutions written by Sabby Sagall and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Final Solutions written by Mahesh Dattani and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A playwright of world stature’—Mario Relich, Wasafiri Final Solutions is one of Mahesh Dattani's most renowned and widely performed plays. Moving between the Partition of India and the present day, it explores issues of religious bigotry and communal violence. One night, after being chased by a murderous mob, two Muslim boys seek shelter in the home of a Hindu Gujarati family. The boys' arrival unleashes a flood of bitter memories and deep-seated prejudices. And as the tension builds towards a powerful climax, the play becomes a timely reminder of the need for tolerance. ‘At last we have a playwright who gives sixty million English-speaking Indians an identity’—Alyque Padamsee ‘Powerful and disturbing’—The New York Times