Randall (Santa Clara Univ.) has edited a compelling volume of essays exploring the intersections of gender and genocide, revealing important dimensions that take the field of genocide studies in new directions. For Randall, 'an examination of gender and genocide allows us to hear the voices and stories of women that are often overlooked and to read men's voices and stories in a more nuanced way.' Divided into five parts, the 13 essays examine mass rape, complicity, and international law through case studies about genocide in Germany, Rwanda, Congo, Armenia, and Bosnia. Randall's inclusion of contributors from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, law, and history, provides a disciplinary diversity that is particularly useful for undergraduates new to studying genocide. Considering gender in the context of genocide studies empowers students, faculty, and practitioners to not simply relegate genocide to 'body counts,' but rather to see 'gendered and life force atrocities'' like rape as a 'red flag for the unfolding of genocidal violence.' Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. * CHOICE *
Genocide and Gender in the Twentieth Century is a well-compiled and stirring book. * Women's History Review *
Obviously gender matters for understanding genocide: the Holocaust as well as the genocides in Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda which are at the centre of this important volume. We learn about women as victims and perpetrators, as well as about victimization and perpetration of men (as men), e.g. about the role which the dynamics of masculinity played for Holocaust perpetrators. Sexual violence, exerted on women (Rwanda) or on men (Bosnia) has been a strategy of genocide, though not in the Shoah where cross-race rape was banned. A praiseworthy highlight of this volume is the strong comparative dimension with its focus on gender-based similarities and differences: this is clearly a milestone in this field. * Gisela Bock, Free University Berlin, Germany *
The study of genocide has increased in sophistication and range over the past fifteen years but the integration of gender analysis has not featured as prominently as it should. Genocide and Gender in the Twentieth Century is the volume for which the field has been waiting. Whether in highlighting the distinct rationales for targeting women and men and consequent divergent experiences of suffering, in specifying the motivations of perpetrators, modalities of destruction, or in disaggregating the gendered construction of groups themselves and gendered reconstruction of groups after genocide, this book demonstrates that gender is an essential and irreducible category of analysis. It is the definitive volume on the subject. * Dirk Moses, European University Institute, Florence *
In the relatively new but rapidly expanding field of genocide studies, gender analysis is at the cutting edge and Genocide and Gender in the Twentieth Century represents some of the most current relevant research. Amy Randall has brought together prominent scholars, historians and legal experts, sharpened with in-depth field experience, to produce accessible, well-documented and thought-provoking evidentiary and analytical essays that will be greatly beneficial to students, scholars, lawyers, human rights and policy activists alike. Multiple case studies of the key genocides of the 20th century including Armenia, the Holocaust, Rwanda and Srebrenica convincingly demonstrate that the lens of gender provides profound insights, both historical and humanitarian, for making sense of the inconceivable crimes of mass identity-based violence. The essays present both female and male, victim and perpetrator-focused analysis, balancing gender consciousness against gender theory, and make a substantial contribution to understanding the causes, addressing the trauma, achieving justice, and preventing future genocides. * Donna Maier, University of Northern Iowa, USA *
