Rarely does a book emerge that is a wake-up call to the world. Mass Hate is such a masterpiece. It explores why the brutality of humankind has erupted and flowed more expansively in the twentieth century than ever before. More importantly, this monumental work offers specific recommendations on how to stem this bloody global tide of slaughter, terror, and genocide—so that the twenty-first century does not bring more of the same, or worse.Neil Kressel—a respected authority on the psychology of international affairs, genocide, and terrorism—meticulously investigates why in the past eight decades mass hatred has reached genocidal proportions throughout the world. Genocide has occurred so often and blood has gushed so freely that one might consider the urge to kill one’s neighbor an inborn characteristic of our species. Furthermore, the power to wreak bloody havoc on innocent civilians has become not only the sport of ”soldiers,” but of terrorists as well. In light of this, Kressel examines the motives for terrorist acts, specifically those of ultraextremist Muslims. Given the possibility of nuclear devices falling into the hands of terrorists in the next century, we must now come to grips with the epidemic spread of hatred and violence. Our only hope lies in understanding the human impulse to hate and the forces that transform that impulse into brutish action. In his quest for a thorough understanding of what ignites mass slaughter, Kressel probes beyond the facile, stock answers that traditionally explain such horrors. He plumbs the depths of history, psychology, and political science to derive his own theories of what propels an average citizen to raise the machete to groups of innocent women and children and slash them to death, or to pull the lever to release pernicious gases upon defenseless people, and to do it again and again.The time has come for us all to join Dr. Kressel in investigating the mind of the hater and to learn to identify the circumstances that foment genocide and terrorism. By recognizing their antecedents, Dr. Kressel proposes ways to control, if not defeat, these twin forces of evil. The breathtaking sweep and depth of this trenchant work promises to make it a classic.In his investigation, he focuses on:
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Book Description
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.
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book deals with the darkside,
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,
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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,
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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.
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