Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror (Revised and Updated) [Paperback]

Neil Kressel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2002

Mass Hate explores why the brutality of humankind erupted and flowed more expansively in the twentieth century than ever before. Psychologist Neil Kressel recommends specific steps to help stem this bloody global tide of slaughter, terror and genocide. In his investigation, Kressel focuses on the horrifying butchery in Rwanda, the terrifying tactics of rape and torture of women in Bosnia, the systematic murder of Jews and others during the Holocaust. He examines history, psychology, and political science for explanations of what propels a citizen to raise a machete against innocent neighbors, and, in a moving conclusion, suggests practical ways for humankind to eradicate the causes of mass hate. Now included in the preface is a discussion of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, on New York and the Pentagon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an illuminating psychosocial inquiry into the roots of mass hatred, Kressel, who chairs the psychology department at William Paterson College of New Jersey, focuses on four examples of the eruption of murderous bigotry. In Germany, the Nazi genocide of the Jews was abetted by millions of patriotic accomplices who gave their enthusiastic support to Hitler, though aware of his willingness to launch a new war and of his hatred of Jews. In the former Yugoslavia, the drive to build a Greater Serbia--born of grandiose nationalism and memories of WWII atrocities against Serbs--in 1992 led Bosnian Serb soldiers to rape, torture and murder thousands of Muslim and Croat women. The 1993 bombing of Manhattan's World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists drew strength from a fundamentalist ideology that demonizes the West. In Rwanda in 1994, Hutu extremists slaughtered half a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu, motivated by a class-based hatred that, according to Kressel, evolved well before the arrival of colonizing Europeans. Kressel explores how powerful leaders, playing upon an us-against-them mentality, can transform law-abiding people into perpetrators of atrocities. The best bulwark against mass hate, he stresses, is a democratic political culture based on free media and human rights.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Neil J. Kressel, Ph.D., a social psychologist at William Paterson University of New Jersey, has taught at Harvard, New York University, and elsewhere. He is also the author of Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror (Westview Press). Dorit F. Kressel, J.D., is a practicing attorney in New Jersey. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Kressel served as a law clerk to the New Jersey Supreme Court.The authors reside in Wayne, New Jersey with their children, Sam and Hannah.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; Updated edition (January 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813339510
• ISBN-13: 978-0813339511
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book deals with the darkside, June 16, 2007

By 

B. Nowak - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror (Revised and Updated) (Paperback)

I will admit that reading about genocide is a bit of a downer, but Kressel does a great job remaining clinical in his analysis. I think that anyone who is interested in stopping genocide needs to read this book and understand the greater implications of how to halt it as a tool used by dictators.

In particular I think his analysis of 'Can anything be done' is particularly useful to people in government who make foreign policy decisions. If you are interested in the psychology/sociology of warfare, this is a must read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Infomitive, October 22, 2005

By 

J. Grammer (Port Orange, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror (Revised and Updated) (Paperback)

Mass Hate: Global Rise to Genocide and Terror was riveting! The book spells out the factors that motivate societies into producing acts of mass hate. I found the book comprehensive, well thought out, well researched, and intellectually stimulating. Kressel ties recent atrocities together and draws logical correlations of behavioral patterns to explain the motivation of the perpetrators of acts of mass hate. If you study the field of Psychology and Sociology in the area of hate and terror, this is necessary

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pioneering study of collective Evil, August 15, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror (Revised and Updated) (Paperback)

In this pioneering work Neil J. Kressel examines the phenomenom of mass- hatred. He provides chilling and detailed descriptions of some of the great evil actions of this century. He describes how the mass- rapes by Serbian soldiers of Muslim women in Kosovo were actually a part of military- doctrine, as the Serbian Army's leaders believed that soldiers who engaged in such activities would fight in a better way. He also has chapters in this work on the mass- murders in Rwanda, and the mentality of the Muslim extremists involved in the 9/11 terror acts. He looks at Nazi hatred in the Holocaust.
The book was originally published in 1996 and an expanded version was published in 2002.
One of the most interesting insights of his researched was revealed in an article he published in the 'Chronicle of Higher Education' There he wondered out loud why social psychologists who had given so much time and attention to the study of European anti- Semitism avoided the increasingly troublesome subject of Islamic Anti- Semitism. In the article he chronicles what to that time were recent developments .He wrote:

"These days, more than a few leading Muslim clerics routinely denounce Jews with dehumanizing rhetoric. For example, in April 2002, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi of Egypt, one of the most important Sunni clerics, described Jews in his weekly sermon as "the enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs." Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, the imam of the most important mosque in Mecca, similarly sermonized that the Jews are "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs." The imam further advised Arabs to abandon all peace initiatives with Jews and asked Allah to annihilate them. Many leaders of Muslim countries enthusiastically greeted former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's similarly racist ranting."

What is even more alarming is that since the publication of this book and article a would - be Muslim Hitler has arisen in Iran Mohammed Amadinejad who openly calls for the destruction of Israel,and the United States and threatens to bring it about. His chantings of 'Death to Israel' before mass- audiences in Tehran are the most striking evidence today that the kind of mass- hatred and collective evil studied in this work , are too much alive today.

Kressel's writing is clear. He provides convincing empirical evidence, political information and psychological analysis .This work is an extremely important study on what is arguably, the most worrisome problem, Mankind faces today.