HIS32380 Genocide & Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century

Academic Year 2023/2024

Was the twentieth century uniquely violent? If so, why? This course explores the question of genocide and mass violence in the twentieth-century world. In this class, we will engage with theories of genocide and political violence, and also examine the validity of these explanations for the causes and consequences of mass violence by examining four case studies in depth. Looking at Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the period of the First World War, Jews on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, and Rwanda in 1994, this class will ask: what is the context for these acts of mass violence? Who were the perpetrators of these acts? Who were the victims? Why did they happen at this time and in this place, and not at another time? What was the tipping point between persecution or repression and mass murder? What was the role of belief or ideology? Did the geopolitical situation in each time and place matter? What were the roles of individuals, groups, and the state? Students will engage with the historiography of twentieth-century genocide, political violence, warfare and civil war, as well as reading and viewing a range of primary sources including victim and perpetrator testimonies, trial records, and documentary film.