From Library Journal
This anthology, edited by two sociology professors, purports to criticize the "Western response" to the horrific crimes committed in much of former Yugoslavia, but the rather confusing variety of chosen articles deprives the book of a cogent focus. Many readers would share the book's viewpoint of Serbian responsibility for the genocide, but they might wonder just what connects articles that discuss the "great speculation" concerning the policy impact of pro-Serbian activity in Congress, the "moral relativism" of much Western opinion toward the conflict, and the bias against "basic Islam" repeatedly evident in the Israeli government's policy regarding the conflict. It remains uncertain whether a Western failure to intervene derived from a view of the combatants, a disdain for the region, or some larger social issue. David Riesman's last chapter, however reflective, does not help. On the other hand, Michael Burnett's account of the "bureaucratization of peacekeeping" and the consequences of UN operations in Somalia offers a good criticism of the UN Secretariat's attitude toward the war. Recommended for larger academic libraries and public libraries with good Balkan collections.?Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
"For people who still are wondering what was happening to the conscience of the West toward Bosnia since 1991, This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia is must reading."
--Universal Press Syndicate
"This Time We Knew is a work of scholarship that aspires to be an act of conscience -- and succeeds in its aspirations."
--Los Angeles Times
We didn't know. For half a century, Western politicians and intellectuals have so explained away their inaction in the face of genocide in World War II. In stark contrast, Western observers today face a daily barrage of information and images, from CNN, the Internet, and newspapers about the parties and individuals responsible for the current Balkan War and crimes against humanity. The stories, often accompanied by video or pictures of rape, torture, mass graves, and ethnic cleansing, available almost instantaneously, do not allow even the most uninterested viewer to ignore the grim reality of genocide.
And yet, while information abounds, so do rationalizations for non-intervention in Balkan affairs - the threshold of real genocide has yet to be reached in Bosnia; all sides are equally guilty; Islamic fundamentalism in Bosnia is a threat to the West; it will only end when they all tire of killing each other - to name but a few.
In This Time We Knew, Thomas Cushman and Stjepan G. Mestrovic have put together a collection of critical, reflective, essays that offer detailed sociological, political, and historical analyses of western responses to the war. This volume punctures once and for all common excuses for Western inaction. This Time We Knew further reveals the reasons why these rationalizations have persisted and led to the West's failure to intercede, in the face of incontrovertible evidence, in the most egregious crimes against humanity to occur in Europe since World War II.
Contributors to the volume include Kai Erickson, Jean Baudrillard, Mark Almond, David Riesman, Daniel Kofman, Brendan Simms, Daniele Conversi, Brad Kagan Blitz, James J. Sadkovich, and Sheri Fink.
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by Michael A. Sells
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