Posted: January 3rd, 2016

critical evaluation of Rwandan genocide

After the end of teaching in block one, you will be required to produce a critical bibliography, which will involve a review of no more than 1500 words of three significant books on genocide. The review will involve a summary and critical evaluation of the approach adopted by each author, analysing and comparing the argument advanced and the evidence provided by each. You will not be required to read the whole book but key chapters and how they treat the Rwandan genocide.

– Eric D. Weitz, A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2005) also covers some of the cases, emphasising the role of the pursuit of Utopia as a cause of genocide.

– Benjamin A. Valentino, Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2005) also covers some cases, emphasising the role of elites and the use of genocide as a strategic tool.

Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) which takes a more functionalist approach and has somewhat uneven chapters on (among others) Yugoslavia and Rwanda.