Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia (Hardcover)

by Beverly Allen (Author)
Key Phrases: genocide convention, cidal rape, enforced pregnancy, United States, United Nations, Yugoslav National Army (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The systematic rape of Muslim and Croat women as part of the "ethnic cleansing" campaign in the former Yugoslavia is by now common knowledge. Less well known is the military policy of rape for the purpose of genocide currently practiced in Bosnia-Herzogovina by members of the Yugoslav Army and the Bosnian Serb military. The author of this outraged protest asserts that rape is being used increasingly as a weapon of war in the Balkans, combining murderous misogyny with rabid nationalism. Allen explains the twisted logic by which perpetrators consider the act as cancelling the victim's cultural identity. If the victim is impregnated, so the theory goes, the offspring is nothing less than "a little Serb soldier." Allen urgently argues that the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal must prosecute the perpetrators of pregnancy-aimed rape as a crime of biological warfare. Her self-consciously feminist book, documenting the mass scale of rapes at some 30 concentration camps, is shockingly effective. Allen is director of the humanities doctoral program at Syracuse University and a prominent advocate of women's rights.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816628181
• ISBN-13: 978-0816628186
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,026,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #30 in	Books > History > Europe > Croatia
  #66 in	Books > Nonfiction > Law > Specialties > War
  #68 in	Books > History > Europe > Serbia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A critical and timely intervention against genocidal rape., March 7, 1999

By A Customer

When I read Rape Warfare for the first time at the height of the conflict in Bosnia I saw it as an important contribution, opening my eyes to the sytematic use of rape as a weapon and informing and inspiring my active involvement in seeking to end the war. After having recently re-read the book, I still view it as an important intervention so I was shocked to see the reader comments posted on Amazon. Both are misguided but the second appears to quickly fall to personal attack rather than a reasoned argument.

The "New York Reader" seems to entirely miss the point of Allen's addition of a conversation with a Bosnian woman on the centrality of the Bogamils to Bosnian culture. The conversation has no pretensions to historical argument; that is precisely why it is related as a conversation rather than as historical fact. By providing a personal rather than an academic account of the Bogomils, Allen shows how important the idea of the Bogomils have become in articulating a Bosnian tradition of ecumenism and multiculturalism. The question of whether or not Bosnian nobles were Bogomils in the 1500s or the scope of their influence misses the point here; what is fascinating about Allen's account is how many Bosnians have appropriated the history of the Bogomils to promote a pluralistic Bosnia.

The second reviewer takes deep offense with Allen for foregrounding her identity, attacking her as self-obsessed. If only more scholarship on the Balkans would show such an awareness of the author's subjectivity. From the plethora of patronizing Western accounts of the war to blatant propaganda designed for domestic consumption - all hid personal and professional interests behind the veil of an "objective" analysis. And it is questionable that anyone can or should separate "feelings" from "research" in the first place, particularly when the topic is as incomprehensible as genocidal rape. It's clear from the reviewer's emotional response to Allen's book that he/she is not immune to the range of feelings that accounts of the war in Bosnia elicits.

While there are some shortcomings with regard to historical and cultural specificities in the book, Allen is not a regional "expert" nor does she claim to be. She clearly states her reasons and goal in writing the book - to raise awareness of genocidal rape and to do something about it. The fact that rape was not even covered by international law five years ago but is being prosecuted today is a great testament to the few scholars like Allen who have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of rape as a war crime. Rape Warfare stands as an important exception to the notable silence and moral passivity of most Western academics (and American ones in particular) during this modern genocide.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a Great Book, March 16, 2000

By	Berry (Chicago) - See all my reviews

After reading the book, I read all of the reviews below. This book isn't as bad as the worst critics make it out to be, but it's not as good as the apologists purport. It's just another read. If you get assigned it for a feminist class, relax, read it, and move on. It's a strange book because it's not really about Bosnia - not having much to offer about politics or the war. It's not about sexual politics - being just another feminist screed. But it's mostly about the writer's own personal thoughts on rape as a military tool. If that interests you, you'll enjoy the book. If not, you probably won't be able to finish it.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where is the Book ?, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

I tried to read book, I read first half, but writer only talk about himself. Where is the book? Why does writer not talk about Bosnia? Who cares about writer? I did not intend to buy her biography. This book is useless.