Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) [Hardcover]

Benjamin A. Valentino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004 | Series: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs

Benjamin A. Valentino finds that ethnic hatreds or discrimination, undemocratic systems of government, and dysfunctions in society play a much smaller role in mass killing and genocide than is commonly assumed. He shows that the impetus for mass killing usually originates from a relatively small group of powerful leaders and is often carried out without the active support of broader society. Mass killing, in his view, is a brutal political or military strategy designed to accomplish leaders’ most important objectives, counter threats to their power, and solve their most difficult problems.

In order to capture the full scope of mass killing during the twentieth century, Valentino does not limit his analysis to violence directed against ethnic groups, or to the attempt to destroy victim groups as such, as do most previous studies of genocide. Rather, he defines mass killing broadly as the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants, using the criteria of 50,000 or more deaths within five years as a quantitative standard.

Final Solutions focuses on three types of mass killing: communist mass killings like the ones carried out in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia; ethnic genocides as in Armenia, Nazi Germany, and Rwanda; and "counter-guerrilla" campaigns including the brutal civil war in Guatemala and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Valentino closes the book by arguing that attempts to prevent mass killing should focus on disarming and removing from power the leaders and small groups responsible for instigating and organizing the killing.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"I find Final Solutions to be superb—even brilliant—in its consideration of the mass killing that took place in the bloody twentieth century. Benjamin Valentino’s reasoning is tight, his care with nuance and definition is exemplary, his exploration of the literature is both deep and amazingly broad, and his conclusions are stunning, unconventional, provocative, and convincingly developed."—John Mueller, Ohio State University

"Final Solutions deftly focuses on the responsibility of the strategic calculations of political leaders for mass killing in the twentieth century. By examining a wide selection of cases, including a number in which large-scale massacres and genocide did not occur, Benjamin A. Valentino is able to test his ideas about the prevention of one of humanity's most dire problems."—Norman M. Naimark, author of Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Benjamin A. Valentino is Assistant Professor of Government at Dartmouth College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801439655
• ISBN-13: 978-0801439650
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A final solution for "final solutions"?, November 9, 2004

By 

E. N. Anderson (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) (Hardcover)

This book provides an excellent, important study of genocide and similar episodes of mass murder by government of its own people. Valentino classifies mass murder campaigns into six types, of which the most important are Communist, ethnic, and anti-guerrilla (elimination not only of combatants but of all possible supporters thereof, during civil unrest). This somewhat underestimates the world's complexity; fascist regimes, notably, massacred not only Jews and other ethnic groups, but homosexuals, socialists, handicapped persons, mentally ill, dissidents of every sort, and even modernist artists. Still, Valentino's typology, and especially his explanations of it, are useful. Valentino also shows that leaders invoke mass murder when they feel threatened. War, economic collapse, consolidation of the regime, or sheer paranoia can turn a ruling group's minds to mass murder. Conversely, a good growing economy in time of peace seems to mollify even the sourest dictator; he cites China since Mao and the USSR after Stalin, when Mao's and Stalin's lieutenants--often their actual hatchet-men--ran much less bloody governments.

The most important argument in the book is that genocide and mass killing are usually invoked by one leader or a very small ruling group. These "final solutions" are not often popular with the masses. This may or may not be true, and will provoke controversy. We have the cases of China and the USSR; but we also have the case of Germany, where anti-Semitic purges had occurred intermittently for centuries. For that matter, Valentino mentions the United States' extermination of many of its Native American groups; this was largely a populist matter, usually without government support (Andrew Jackson's presidency being a notable exception). In the US, as in Brazil and some other countries, millions of people over a couple of centuries carried out genocidal policies. More research is needed!

The one real problem I have with Valentino's book is his solution to final solutions. Since it is at least arguably true that mass murder is invoked by a very few leaders, his simple fix is to get rid of the leaders. Sure--but all Germany rallied to Hitler's--or at least Germany's--defense in WWII, and the United States is now learning in Iraq that people often prefer the insane tyrant they know to the alien infidels who might, for all they know, be even worse. The CIA probed China during Mao's day (I know; I was there) and wisely pulled out, for the same basic reason. A thought experiment about what might happen if the US goes into Iran is instructive.

I totally agree with Valentino that we should make every attempt to go in and stop genocide and mass killing, and I am nearly persuaded that he is right about the conceptual ease of it. I only wish the world were as simple and logical as he thinks it is. The world could easily have stopped the killing in Rwanda and Burundi, and in Guatemala, but chose not to bother (after all, those guys weren't white...Europe and America rallied to stop far less extensive killing in Serbia). Dealing with Saddam has proved less easy. Dealing with Mao would have been impossible, even though the vast majority of Chinese welcomed his passing. And now we have ongoing genocide in Sudan, and no one knows what to do.

I second the earlier reviewer's assessment that this is a book everyone interested in the current world mess should read.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading, February 23, 2004

By 

Mark Whitcher (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) (Hardcover)

Dr. Valentino lays out his thesis, analysis and ultimately his conclusions in a logical and methodical approach that is truly thought provoking. His keen insights and broad knowledge of the material is unparalleled and indisputable. Without political slant or bias, Dr. Valentino's meticulous approach to understanding the horrors of mass killings and genocide lays a firm, new foundation for taking action to prevent these atrocities in the future. This book should be required reading for foreign policy makers around the world.