Torture and Democracy (Hardcover)

~ Darius Rejali (Author)
Key Phrases: positional tortures, stealthy torture, pharmacological torture, United States, World War, Northern Ireland (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... is the anatomy of sneaky. Rejali regales us with tales of every technique of torture known to man." -- Alex Danchev, Times Higher Education

"The book is a towering achievement, a serious work of social science on an urgent topic." -- Michael O'Donnell, The San Francisco Chronicle

Review

Rejali's approach is to track the different behaviors, trends and traditions in torture throughout history to see who influenced whom and what they did...Rejali, a leading expert on government interrogation techniques, reaches key conclusions. First, monitoring by human rights groups doesn't stop torture, it simply causes torturers to resort to techniques that don't scar...Second, most contemporary torture traditions were passed on like crafts from teacher to apprentice...Third, Rejali writes, a person being tortured is likely to say whatever he thinks his captors want to hear, making it one of the poorest methods of gathering reliable information.
(Laurel Maury Los Angeles Times )

Torture and Democracy immediately lays claim to be the most compendious and the most rigorous treatment of the subject yet written. Saul Bellow used to say that we are constantly looking for the book it is necessary to read next. On torture, this is it...Torture and Democracy is the anatomy of sneaky. Rejali regales us with tales of every technique of torture known to man...Rejali's analysis of efficacy is exemplary: at once prudent and trenchant, historically alert and morally sentient.
(Alex Danchev Times Higher Education )

[A] magisterial study of torture and how it has developed as a social and moral issue with a focus on developments through the last century.
(Scott Horton Harper's Magazine )

An exhaustive study of...'clean tortures,' or tortures that leave no permanent scars. Electrotorture, water tortures, stress and duress positions, beating, noise, drugs and forced exercises all make an appearance. The book is a towering achievement, a serious work of social science on an urgent topic that is too frequently surrounded by assumption and myth. It should be read and disseminated widely...The book is devoted to exploding one myth in particular: that clean tortures can casually and reliably be traced to the ancients, or, failing that, to the Nazis. Rejali's provocative thesis is that most clean tortures were actually born in democracies, especially imperial Britain and France.
(Michael O'Donnell San Francisco Chronicle )

Torture and Democracy is a much-needed attempt to put our discussions on a firmer historical and conceptual footing while showing us the realities of what torture is and what it does. Based on a decade of research and approximately 2,000 sources in 14 languages, Torture and Democracy is really several books in one. It is a methodical history of what Rejali calls 'clean' or 'stealth' torture (torture that leaves no marks) in the 20th century; a sociological examination of torture's relationship to democracies; a psychological exploration of torture's impact on societies and individuals; a practical consideration of torture's effectiveness; a philosophical musing on the ethics of torture and interrogation in general; an exhaustive cataloguing of tortures used throughout the ages; and what Rejali calls 'a reliable sourcebook' for those who speak out against torture anywhere.
(Michael McGregor The Oregonian )

[Creates] what essentially amounts to an epidemiology of torture. Just as scientists were able to show how HIV traveled around the world by mapping the locatino and date of each outbreak of AIDS, Rejali similarly documents the global transmission of major torture techniquest by drawing up a chronology of their occurrence . . . Rejali's accomplishment--and it's a considerable one--is to lay out this vast amount of information to demonstrate patterns few had noticed before.
(Brian Zabcik American Lawyer )

Documenting modern torture techniques, [Torture and Democracy] is both horrifying and compelling. The consequences of torture are always unpredictable and Rejali argues that torture fails when it's needed most--in last-minute, ticking bomb scenarios.
(Karen J. Greenberg Financial Times )

Dozens of books about torture have been published over the last five years. But none compare to Torture and Democracy for its richly detailed comparative analysis, and its synthesis of historical, psychological, medical, forensic, sociological, and political information to explain what torture is, what it does to victims and perpetrators, and why and how it spreads. . . . Rejali has earned the right to speak authoritatively about the most important question of all: Does torture work? His answer, like his book, is profound, complex, and supported by a wealth of empirical detail.
(Lisa Hajjar Arab Studies Journal )

Torture and Democracy, the fruit of a lifetime's study should dispel much ignorance and frequently facile assumptions about the subject.
(David Bentley World Today )

Darius Rejali's Torture and Democracy, a decade in the making, will be the canonical source text for information on, and the historical confirmation of, the democratic pedigree of tortures that leave no mark.
(z Z. Huq. "World Policy Journal )

Sprawling, essential. . . . A massive dictionary of the unspeakable.
(Gary Bass Dissent )

Rejali's consolidation of the available data on torture is certainly an admirable and relevant task. What is especially provocative and essential about Rejali's scholarship is that he forces readers to retreat from the minutiae of political debates surrounding torture and asks us to examine the larger contextual picture.
(Shana Tabak Democracy & Society )

This book is quite simply the most authoritative study of torture ever written. Twenty-five years of painstaking research in the making, it will serve the human rights movement for decades to come.
(George Hunsinger Theology Today )

The book suits well as an introduction to the topic of torture (techniques) throughout the world from the 20th century until today. . . . [T]he first two parts of the opus offer a vast amount of information on the historical and technical development of torture across many different states.
(Daniela Kaschel Journal of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 880 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (November 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691114226
• ISBN-13: 978-0691114224
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #562,949 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful book looks at the history of torture in securing information, its value and cost to society , January 27, 2008

By	Wayne Klein "If at first the idea is not absu... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

To paraphrase a famous quotation, when it comes to victims of torture often are victims in countries of liberty and face death from "clean torture" such as waterboarding often in the most democractic countries. Author Darius Rejali has produced a scholarly examination of the use of torture, it's cost to society and which societies it occurs in with TORTURE AND DEMOCRACY a compelling, powerful book that isn't for the squeamish.

As Rejali points out while barbaric customs such as the severing of limbs that are caturerized with blow torches doesn't occur here,the use of waterboarding and other "enhanced" techniques (to use an almost Orwellian obfuscation of the truth)that aren't torture because we use a euphanism that robs the phrase of its true meaning and, as a result, responsibility for something inhumane, does occur here along with other inhumane practices. Ironically, using waterboarding which seems an "acceptable" form of torture today to gather information (that can often be inaccurate--there's no way to tell as no one has truly done an unbiased study looking at information gathered by non-torture and torture techniques comparing their accuracy)resulted in a Japanese officer named Yukio Asano tried for war crimes during WWII, doesn't even cause the blink of an eye in the intellgience community in the 21st century.

These "clean" forms of torture allow there to be no physical scars (although there are psychic ones that may never heal)and makes it more difficult to prove that they occurred. This creates the perfect atmosphere for denial in an open society such as a democractic one or even in a dictatorship making it more difficult for the eyes of the world to see all the victims these forms of torture claim. The proliferation of clean torture in our society has been around for a long time but it has truly taken hold in the 20th and 21st centuries having tangled roots in many different societies and cultures. No one is free of guilt and no one immune from being roped into practicing it.

This is an important book that should be read and understood by everyone that wonders about how information is gathered from those we capture in both peace and war time. Anyone can say anything when being tortured because it is human nature to want it to end which makes the results questionable and the value of any sort of torture (and the use of fear)possibly inflated. The result is physical and psychological maiming for no clear decernable benefit. TORTURE AND DEMOCRACY is a thought provoking, powerful book that calls into question some of the very techniques that we use to gather information to plan policy and military strikes.

It may be daunting but it is a necessary book to keep us as honest with ourselves and others as possible in regards to how we treat prisoners.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly Informative, May 4, 2008

By	J. Mullin (Iowa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book in order to be able to shoot down any argument about why torture should be used, I wasn't disappointed. Though, it is not an easy read, so make sure to give the book the attention and breaks it deserves in order to digest all the information presented. It is dense but well worth the read.

5.0 out of 5 stars A sweeping, encyclopedic work, August 12, 2009

By	Eric Faulk - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Torture and Democracy serves several functions, some academic and others pragmatic. The essential claim of the work challenges the classical notion that only autocratic governments torture their constituents. Instead, T&D proposes that democratic governments develop covert, non-scarring (or "clean") torture techniques in order to circumvent the proliferation of torture-monitoring human rights groups. This hypothesis has recently gained credence with the advent of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, but T&D goes much deeper than that by studying the proliferation of clean torture techniques throughout the 20th century.

Ultimately, Rejali produces a comprehensive compendium of modern torture techniques, espoused in great detail. T&D is useful not only to the aspiring academic, but also vital to human rights groups around the world who are struggling to adapt to the constant evolution of modern torture. All in all, it would be difficult to classify the entire work as anything less than "significant" if not "sweeping."

-EF