Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of maps -- Map : genocidal violence, 1900 to the present -- Introduction : genocide as a practice and a concept -- Genocide in the ancient and medieval worlds -- Destruction of the native peoples of the Americas -- The "Century of Genocide" -- Modern imperialism -- Mass atrocities in the Soviet Union and Asia -- Post-World War II genocide -- Why do humans commit genocide? -- 1. The Armenia genocide -- The Armenians -- Erosion of the Empire -- The "Young Turk" revolution -- "Young Turk" nationalism and racism -- War and genocide -- April 24 : the decimation of Armenian leadership -- Resistance -- aftermath : struggles for land and justice -- Organized from on high -- How many victims? -- Genocide denial -- 2. The Holocaust -- Anti-Jewish prejudice in history -- Preconditions for the Holocaust : World War I and Weimar Germany -- Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party -- Elimination of opponents and intensification of repression : 1933-1938 -- Stages of anti-Jewish persecution -- World War II -- Operation Barbarossa and the "final solution" -- Auschwitz, "Operation Reinhard," and the peak of Nazi genocide -- The Nazis' collaborators and ideological soul mates -- Non-Jewish victims -- Jewish resistance -- Bystanders and rescuers -- The end of the Thrid Reich -- 3. The Cambodian genocide -- Angkor and precolonial Cambodia -- Cambodia and Indochina under French colonialism -- Emergence of the Communist Party of Cambodia -- "Brother Number 1" : Pol Pot -- Cambodian politics in the 1950s and 1960s -- War in Vietnam and civil War in Cambodia -- Marxism, Stalinism, and Maoism -- Remaking Cambodian society -- Targeting of minority groups -- How many were killed? -- "Genocide is too heavy for the shoulders of justice" -- 4. The Rwandan genocide -- Rwandan history and European racial philosophies -- Emergence of Hutu parties and independence -- Habyarimana's "Second Republic" -- 1993 strife in neighboring Burundi -- Dashed hopes for peace -- Assassination of Habyarimana and the descent into genocide -- Rape as a weapon of war and genocide --Downfall of the Hutu regime -- Failure of the "international community" -- Rescue and resistance -- Post-genocide Rwanda -- Authoritarianism and war under Kagame -- Conclusions : what have we learned and what remains to be learned? -- An integrated approach to the study of genocide -- Israel-Palestine and Holocaust memory -- The psyches of genocidal perpetrators -- Warfare and genocide -- Nationalism vulnerability, perceptions of grievance, and humiliation -- Another century of war and genocide? -- Timeline of genocide and genocidal crimes against humanity, 1900 to present.