Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide [Hardcover]

Donald E. Miller (Author), Lorna Touryan Miller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520079841 | ISBN-13: 978-0520079847 | Publication Date: April 8, 1993 | Edition: First Edition

Between 1915 and 1923, over one million Armenians died, victims of a genocidal campaign that is still denied by the Turkish government. Thousands of other Armenians suffered torture, brutality, deportation. Yet their story has received scant attention. Through interviews with a hundred elderly Armenians, Donald and Lorna Miller give the "forgotten genocide" the hearing it deserves. Survivors raise important issues about genocide and about how people cope with traumatic experience. Much here is wrenchingly painful, yet it also speaks to the strength of the human spirit.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Combining a compelling oral history with a trenchant analysis of the first major genocide of the 20th century, this moving study focuses on the Turkish murder of more than one million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 in a systematic campaign of mass deportations, slaughter, forced labor and starvation. The Millers, a husband-and-wife team--he is a sociologist of religion at the University of Southern California, she is the daughter of survivors of the genocide--present formidable documentary evidence that this holocaust was the result of an ultranationalist Turkish government's deliberate plan to exterminate the Armenians (still denied by Turkish officials). Their interviews with 100 survivors of the genocide are organized to illustrate specific themes such as the imprisonment and torture of Armenian leaders, life in orphanages (which cradled a new generation of Armenians) and the psychological traumas that continue to afflict survivors in nightmares and waking moments. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The Armenian genocide of 1915 is one of the few systematic atrocities of the 20th century that has yet to be fully acknowledged. Committed in a remote corner of the world during World War I, it has been regularly denied by successive Turkish governments and never truly mourned by the world community. In this book, Donald Miller (religion, Univ. of Southern California) and Lorna Miller, whose parents survived the massacre, recall the event in a painfully moving and objective testament to all those who suffered and died. Their work is impressive in its scope and methodology; over 100 elderly survivors were interviewed. Balanced and objective throughout, the book attempts to deal succinctly with survivor reactions over time and offers poignant reflections on the birth of the new Armenian republic in the wake of the Soviet collapse. An excellent work; recommended for all libraries.
- Joseph W. Constance Jr., St. Anselm Coll. Lib., Manchester, N.H.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 274 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; First Edition edition (April 8, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520079841
• ISBN-13: 978-0520079847
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,537,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hidden Tragedy of the 20th Century, June 18, 2001

By 

Kelley Hunt (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide (Paperback)

I never learned about the Armenian Genocide in school. I'd never heard about it until I read a book which mentioned it, sparking my curiosity enough to read this book. It's another tragic story of man's inhumanity to man. Very much like the Holocaust of WW II. The Armenians believed they were being relocated, but instead found themselves being forced to travel without food, water and sanitation. Along the way they were robbed of what few possessions they were allowed to take with them. They were tortured, raped, shot, tossed over cliffs and hurled down mountainsides. They were stripped of their clothing and forced to walk for days on end until they died from exposure to the elements. Men, women, children and the elderly were all subjected to the same obscene cruelties. The few bright spots in the book included Turks and Kurds who protected Armenians at their own expense, and Armenians who managed to survive terrible tragedies and come through it all still believing in a just God and in the essential goodness of their fellow man.

62 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I highly reccomend this Book, February 20, 2001

By 

Robert D. Glover Jr. "robert-g-near-nyc" (Linden, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide (Paperback)

I just finished reading this book...it is riveting, well written, accessible, of manageable length (192) pages, and in general a supurb introduction to the subject for readers such as myself who didn't even know where or what Armenia was until I picked up this book. I really hope that the general public becomes more aware of the Armenian genicide and starts demanding that Turkey, and their Kurdish henchmen, own up to this awful crime and stop denying that the genicide of the Armenian nation ever happened. It is shocking that in my entire life I have never heard one word spoken in my church or in any school I have attendedabout the Armenian genicide. All I have ever heard about is the Jewish Holocaust (sp?), as if that were the first genicide of this century. A case can be made that if the world had become sufficiently enraged by the Armenian genicide, the Jewish Holocaust would never have happened. (Page 5 of the book states, "There is a universal tendency to avoid seeing, as well as remembering, the human capacity for evil. Adolf Hitler understood this well when, on August 22. 1939 he said to his military commanders regarding his plans for Poland: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"".) The book points out, in passing, that some Armenians believe that the reason the United States does not acknowledge that the Turks committed genicide against the Armenians, is because Turkey is a strong ally of the United States in the Middle East. I don't think it is possible to read this book without being profoundly affected by it. I don't personally have time to read a huge, thick book on the subject, so this 192 page, well written, emotionally powerful is probably all I'll ever have the time to read on the subject. I wish all Americans would read this book. Do read this book. Please.

51 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you read one book on the Armenian Genocide, READ THIS!, June 21, 2000

By 

"shamz" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide (Paperback)

If you could give six stars, this book would get it. It should be required reading for high school or college students. It should be required reading for revisionist historians like Stanford Shaw, Bernard Lewis, Justin McCarthy, and Heath Lowry--or any other Turkish "historian". Putting aside all the politics and theories, this book simply focuses on the suffering of the Armenians who went through the Genocide of 1915. It is as much a sociology book as a historical one. The parallels between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust become obvious as one reads the accounts. It is an invaluable primary source for further study of the Armenian Genocide, as most of the survivors are dying off. It is an easy read, but you will probably find yourself disgusted or teary-eyed during much of it. It is objective, simply telling the facts, including descriptions of good, helpful Turks. If you know little about the subject, this is a great place to start. For those who get to caught up in the politics of events, this is a great book to remember the horrific suffering of these human beings. And for those revisionists and neo-Young Turks who still deny the wholesale extermination of the Armenians, I can't think of a better book to force someone to start accepting the truth.