Customer Reviews

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present

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Funny thing. The earlier reviewer who alleged that Ward Churchill "has changed tribes several times" forgot to mention where, or what tribes he's supposedly claimed. I've got copies of things he's published and interviews he's given all the way back to 1969, and can find no evidence that he's ever identified as anything other than "Cherokee," "Creek/Cherokee" and, for the past few years, "Keetoowah Cherokee" (which is of course a particular Cherokee Band, to which Bill Clinton does NOT belong).

One is certainly entitled to one's opinion of Churchill, but lies are not opinions. They're just lies.

So much for the "issue" of Churchill's ethnicity, as if it had bearing on either the merits of his argument or the eloquence with which he presents it in the first place.

A LITTLE MATTER OF GENOCIDE is a superb book, far more comprehensive and better documented than Stannard's AMERICAN HOLOCAUST (note that the reviewer who complained about inaccurate footnotes offered no examples).

This is probably the best and most important work yet from one Native North America's best and most important writer/scholars.

"A Little Matter of Genocide" by Ward Churchill is a scholarly discourse on genocide. It is an extremely well documented historical accounting of targeted racial/ethnic killings from 1492 to the present. Especial emphasis and iteration is placed on the well-nigh complete extermination or genocide of the once populous native North American Indians.

A brief, interesting discussion is provided on the controversial birth status of Christopher Columbus's extraction and arguements favoring Italian (Genoese), Spanish, Portuguese, or even Jewish nationality, etc. Churchill notes there are more than 250 books and articles devoted to and another 300 essays or folios discussing this issue.

Various genocide references are made: Cambodian (Khmer Rouge), Armenian (Turks), Gypsies, Poles and Jews (Nazi) and those occurring in North, Central and South America. Even fetal genocide is mentioned. Churchill refutes, heatedly debates and debunks the prevalent and largely American Jewish assertion that the only true genocide ever to have taken place was the Jewish Holocaust.

A concluding discussion and definition of genocide, actions of the UN General Assembly and some clarifying of definitions and intents of meaning in Articles 1-V111 of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (1948) was very helpful.

The book is ponderous reading: the content is shocking for it departs radically from that which had been taught in school. However, Churchill comes off as having written a masterful account which, once embraced, is difficult to put down until it has been read. The all too few picture and the explanatory footnotes are invaluable. This is a must read for those who profess to be informed.

I was browsing through the "Native American" section of a nationally owned chain of bookstores around three years ago. This book was on display as a kind of "selection-of-the-month." I recognized the author's name immediately. Holy Hannah! This was the University of Colorado 'radical'author. The same fellow who wrote: "Agents of Repression: The FBIs Secret War Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement." [I read "Agents" many years ago; afterwards was convinced that the FBI and the CIA were capable of ANYTHING. And I mean ANYTHING]. Besides the display copy, one book was remaining. I pulled it off the shelf and DID NOT so much as look for a price tag until I was paying the cashier.

I couldn't wait to get home and start reading it. The book itself would be a bit overwhelming for someone with little or no knowledge of the subject matter. [In fact, at times I struggled with grasping some of the concepts Churchill was laying down]. But do not let this frighten you. Although VERY "scholarly" regarding the subject matter, this book can be read like a novel...there are plenty of footnotes and brief explanations so as not to alienate the reader.

What you'll be reading is some pretty gruesome stuff in parts...most importantly, you'll be wondering: "WHAT and WHY and HOW could all of these events have occured!?"

That, I think, is the whole idea behind Churchill's book. To get us THINKING and to QUESTION.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this book is that you DON'T have to read it from front-to-back. [But it would make more sense in the long run]. The reader could just pick out a chapter, read it, and historically/chronologically figure it out. Myself?: I've put it in the 'reference' section of my personal collection.

This is without question a book for anyone curious about a 'behind-the-scenes' look into our Western history. A lot of it isn't pretty, but real life isn't.

It has to be said that by and large, criticisms leveled at Ward Churchill's ALMG are conveniently vapid in details. But the attacks are most telling in their typical ad hominem remarks. A careful and well-read scholar may not find a great deal of "brand new" data, but charges of lies or deliberate falsehoods are unfounded. These are serious yet unfounded charges, with little of the historical record Churchill refers to being in any real dispute. The "spin" placed on that history is the crux of the matter. Such criticisms of "sloppy scholarship" are merely insulting distractions, and they smack of sour grapes, to be sure. To be truthful, I found little "new" in ALMG, most likely awaits us all as a consequence of the American policito-industrio machine and its deliberate disregard for human beings in pursuit of the bitch goddess Mammon; the second is chapter one's brilliant and scathing indictment of Deborah Lipstadt's ultimately sad piece of "scholarship" designed to perpetuate the myth of the Nazi's Jewish genocide's uniqueness (see Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory). Churchill's first chapter alone is worthy of serious study as an example of a masterful dissection of politically motivated intellectual games and lies posing as serious scholarship. Portions of the book are powerful, clean and surgical, as Churchill cuts straight to the heart of the matter; everyone,especially apologists, will not be able to hear the message - it is simply too clear. Some passages will leave a sensitive, open reader in stunned silence, trying to absorb the magnitude of the destruction, cultural obliteration, and the pain and suffering that has taken place since Euroamericans set foot on Hispanola five centuries ago; more importantly, the destruction continues to this day. A good part of this history is unbearably painful, and Churchill presents it in a moving and masterful style. It is extremely rare to read work of this caliber - scholarship not veiled behind the obvious expectation of academic to tow the party line. The last two paragraphs on page 92 are perhaps the most powerful words Churchill don't move you, then you simply do not yet understand

My choice of title for this review of Ward Churchill's excellent book is the result of realizing how few honest voices are out there, and how powerful the enemy of truth is, making the thought of a better world a daunting one. As much of an uphill struggle as it seems, we cannot give up.

To say that the book is eye-opening is certainly an understatement. I found myself unable to continue many times because of the gravity of the past and present, and what they mean for the future, laid out by Churchill. In short, anyone interested in beginning to grapple with America's past, and with the wider topic of genocide, must read this book.

To quickly respond to some comments found in other reviews here:

This book may seem "dry" to those not used to academic works. Churchill is not John Grisham. Get over it. The irony of such a complaint is that Churchill's style is certainly more passionate and irreverent than the typical scholarly prose found in academic journals.

Regarding the generous footnotes, the reasons for which a reviewer has failed to understand, let me quote Churchill in the introduction to the book: "Throughout the book, I have gone out of my way to provide what Noam Chomsky has called 'rich footnotes.' The reasons for this are several, and devolve not merely upon the usual scholarly fetish with indicating familiarity with 'the literature.' I do believe that when making many of the points I've sought to make... one is well-advised to be thorough in revealing the basis upon which they rest. I also believe it is a matter not just of courtesy, but of ethics, to make proper attribution to those upon whose ideas and research one relies. Most importantly, I want those who read this book to be able to interrogate what I've said, to challenge it and consequently to build on it." Churchill's mention here of wanting to illustrate familiarity with the body of work surrounding one's own is mistakenly seen as a kind of bravado, and properly seen as a legitimate attempt to indicate to readers that the writer might know what they're talking about. In the end, what is really suspicious in scholarly writing is not a wealth of footnotes, but a noticeable lack of them. This is what we really should be concerned about.

Finally, the erroneous claim that Churchill has proposed the view that smoking tobacco is "harmless" needs correction. He simply does not say or imply this at all. Some people read with only one eye, it seems. What Churchill does challenge is the idea that the government can estimate with a degree of accuracy to one tenth of one percent the number of people who will die in the US next year due to exposure to "second-hand smoke" but at the same time, this government claims to be unable to find any concrete link between exposure to radioactive substances and cancer. He also proposes the idea that the government, with a great interest (if not now, then in the future when fossil fuels are depleted) in pursuing atomic energy, has created a cover-up to the ill-effects of exposure to radiation involved in the atomic energy industry, from mining to waste water contamination to melt-down accidents and other events, by asserting that the rising rate of cancer illnesses is due to cigarette smoking, second-hand smoke, and other tobacco-related problems, essentially putting a large but old and fading industry out to pasture in favor of protecting an also large but new industry seen as having an enormously bright (and lucrative) future. It's all there, if you bother to read carefully.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about the subject of the American (North, Central and South) genocide is that it is not a story of history only. The genocide is continuing to this day, even at home in the good ol' US of A. It makes me so proud to be American.

Read the book. Then, do something about it. Tell people about what you've learned, write some letters, DO SOMETHING.

Churchill covers the subject of the North American genocide in detail. The argument over capitilizing the 'holocaust' phenomena is thought provoking, but the best of the book is in its scholarly coverage of a subject that is uncomfortable for many.

Questions of Churchill's pedigree are pointless--this book is a powerful account. Well written and well argued. So tightly reasoned that critics attack his credibility through unfair attacks.

You can judge an idea by the enemies it generates and the wide array of enemies this book provokes testifies to its truthfulness and incise reasoning.

An important read for people who have bought the American history sold in American schools without thinking.

Though several chapters of the book are recycled writings of Churchill, taken as a whole, I believe this book will take its place with the greatest efforts ever devoted to the subject of just what happened to the natives thatpopulated the New World. I am writing my own book that covers this subject matter, among others, and reading Churchill has been an awesome experience. I have also studied this area of history at some length, though I cannot pretend to tie Churchill's shoes in native studies. But we have trod much of the same material and sources, and his analysis and synthesis of such a dauntingly broad range of material is little short of incredible. Oh yes, he has made mistakes here and there, expected in a work with over a thousand footnotes, but I would stack Churchill up against any historian in the business on the issue of the native experience at the hands of the white man. Unfortunately, the establishment cannot afford to have too many of the brainwashed masses hear voices like Churchill's, so it will likely have an obscure fate...until we wake up as a people. I salute Churchill's tireless efforts on behalf of justice and truth.

"A Little Matter" is worth reading simply for its discussion of the term "genocide". But there's so much more. If I get started I'm going to blather on at extreme length, so I won't.

The content of this book has been well covered by the reviewers before me, so I simply want to add my 5 stars. If you're interested in the issues suggested by the title, you've found an insightful, solidly referenced, powerfully argued resource.

Ward Churchill has an axe to grind, certainly, but he also has a forest to cut through. There are so many lies abroad in the world that we are all choking on them, I think, both victors and victims. This is a book I'm grateful to have read.

Stannard's wonderful and terrible "American Holocaust" is another. As are John Pilger's "Secret Country", and "Blood on the Wattle" by Bruce Elder, both of which concern Australia, my own sad, similarly haunted homeland.

In his superbly documented work, «A Little Matter of Genocide», author Ward Churchill examines the genocide of Native Americans by Europeans and Euro-Americans, quite possibly the gravest perpetration in history of that utterly insane collective behavior that for lack of a more comprehensible term is denominated crimes against humanity. The book presents detailed accounts supported by solid evidence that clearly establish the magnitude of this unparalleled event in terms of the scores of millions of individuals that were murdered or intentionally driven to death, cultures annihilated, cultures terrorized and victimized, mortality rates in the surviving cultures, geographic extent and duration of the crimes (the entire hemisphere for five centuries so far), number of countries committing the crimes, and shocking degree of horrid brutality employed in the persecutions, especially against defenseless women, children and elders. Not even modern-age, race-based slavery, that other shamefully atrocious invention of Western civilization, can compare in terms of the scale of the depravity. Churchill's book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the historical foundations of and contemporary policy implications for Western governments and societies as well as the pervasive influence of this legacy on personal mindsets.

Ward Churchill explores the truth of that which the united states has been based upon since its' inception, genocide, slaughter, and annihilation. Purchase this book, and you too can learn the truth.