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Books – Genocide

Centuries of Genocide:  Essays and Eyewitness Accounts
This is a comprehensive introduction to fifteen specific genocides, beginning with the genocide of California’s Yana Indians and continuing to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. An introduction by the editors places the subsequent set of case studies in context, and each essay about a specific genocide is coupled with selected eyewitness accounts of the same genocide. Also included is an appendix with the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and a comprehensive index.

  • Editors:  Samuel Totten and William S. Parsons.
  • Source:  Routledge, 2012.
  • Grade Level:  high school – college/university.
  • Subject Area:  humanities, social studies, social sciences


Genocide:  A Comprehensive Introduction
This textbook, geared to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as the general reader, provides a comprehensive introduction to the topic of genocide, along with seven case studies of genocides, and chapters that provide perspectives on genocide from selected social sciences, political science/international relations, and gender studies. The book concludes with a discussion of the “future of genocide” which encompasses issues of historical memory, denial of genocides, programs designed to engender truth, justice, and reconciliation, and how genocide may be limited or prevented. Each chapter includes recommended resources for further study.

  • Author: Adam Jones, New York:
  • Publisher: Routledge, 2006.


Night
A candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. Teacher’s Guide available from PBS.

  • Editors:  Elie Wiesel
  • Source:  Bantam Books, 1955
  • Grade Level:  high school
  • Subject Area:  language arts, social studies


A Problem from Hell: American and the Age of Genocide
In her Pulitzer Prize-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, Samantha Power asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow “never again” repeatedly fail to stop genocide?

  • Author:  Samantha Power
  • Source:  A New Republic Book, 2002
  • Grade Level:  high school – adult


Teaching About Genocide:  Issues, Approaches and Resources
This edited volume includes sections on rationales for the study of genocide; case studies of 10 selected genocides, ranging from the Armenian Genocide of the period 1915-1923 to the Rwanda genocide of the early 1990s; chapters on instructional strategies and learning activities, how to conduct a comparative study of genocide, and genocide prevention; and a chapter focusing on the relationships between the study of human rights, genocide and social responsibility. A selected annotated bibliography on teaching about genocide concludes this very valuable resource.

  • Editor:  Samuel Totten
  • Source:  Information Age Publishing, 2004.
  • Grade Level:  Undergraduates, graduate students, practicing teachers, and scholars
  • Subject Area:  humanities, social studies, education
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The core values of HRE USA and its partner organizations include transparency and critical thinking skills. We believe that human rights--and human rights education--belong to everyone, and that the full realization of human rights means that access to human rights education materials must never be conditioned upon the subscription to any particular religious faith, ideology, political affiliation, or membership in any particular organization and that any organizational connections should be openly acknowledged.