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The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response Paperback – October 5, 2004
| Peter Balakian (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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A History of International Human Rights and Forgotten Heroes
In this national bestseller, the critically acclaimed author Peter Balakian brings us a riveting narrative of the massacres of the Armenians in the 1890s and of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Using rarely seen archival documents and remarkable first-person accounts, Balakian presents the chilling history of how the Turkish government implemented the first modern genocide behind the cover of World War I. And in the telling, he resurrects an extraordinary lost chapter of American history.
Awarded the Raphael Lemkin Prize for the best scholarly book on genocide by the Institute for Genocide Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY Graduate Center.
- Print length528 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateOctober 5, 2004
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.19 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100060558709
- ISBN-13978-0060558703
- Lexile measure1400L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“In this important book, Balakian proves adept at presenting both human horror and political tragedy.” — Booklist
The terrible fate of the Armenians... is brilliantly described. A great service to the history of the Armenians.” — Sir Martin Gilbert, author of The Righteous: the Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust
“An eloquent account of Turkey’s long campaign to rid itself of Armenians....Thoroughly convincing.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Peter Balakian tells the powerful and largely unknown story of [Armenian Genocide]. This important and compelling book is long overdue.” — Deborah E. Lipstadt, Ph.D., Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies Director, Emory University
“The Burning Tigris is an act of acute historical memory, of personal testimony, of prophetic witness - and of high art.” — James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword and Secret Father
“A gripping treatment of the official Turkish mass murder...a masterpiece of moral history...it needs to be widely read.” — Paul Fussell, author of The Great War and Modern Memory and Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War
“Balakian tells a story long ripe for the telling.... He writes with grace and power.” — Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, The University of Chicago, author of Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World
“[A] fascinating and affecting memoir.” — New York Times Book Review
“Richly imagined and carefully documented.” — The New Yorker
“[An] engrossing and poignant memoir.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“A mighty work, a slow burn of muted eloquence, dense with scholarship...compelling.” — Forward
About the Author
Peter Balakian is the author of Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for Memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974–2000. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University and teaches at Colgate University, where he is a Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities.
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Product details
- Publisher : Harper Perennial (October 5, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 528 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0060558709
- ISBN-13 : 978-0060558703
- Lexile measure : 1400L
- Item Weight : 1.01 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.19 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #586,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #274 in Turkey History (Books)
- #613 in Human Rights Law (Books)
- #847 in Middle Eastern Politics
- Customer Reviews:
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1) Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire were slaughtered both under the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the late 1800s and the CUP government of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. Victims included men, women, and children.
2) The murders took place in a variety of ways. Citizens were slaughtered by Ottoman troops as well as Kurdish gangs. Many more were forced on mass transits from their homes in eastern Turkey to present day Syria whether by train or foot and died along the way. Men were often drafted into labor battalions of the Ottoman army and killed while "serving."
3) The governments of Britain, France, the US, and Russia did little to nothing to save the Armenians.
4) There was a substantial presence of American Protestant missionaries in Ottoman Turkey at the time who did much to save and shelter the victims. However, these missionaries opposed a declaration of war on Ottoman Turkey by the US due to fear of losing their property there.
5) President Woodrow Wilson, who was in debilitating health and likely influenced by missionary friends, did not declare war on Ottoman Turkey.
6) Largely due to Turkey's strategic location and influence in the oil-rich middle east, most countries do not recognize the massacres of millions of Armenians as genocide.
Less than 30 countries worldwide recognize the Armenian Genocide. The ones that do are mainly either in Europe or South America.
Balakian presents a historically accurate image of what the United States government knew and how they sought to address the deliberate genocide against the Armenians without becoming involved in World War I or other international conflicts occurring at the time. Balakian's writing is succinct, detailed, and he relies on primary source documents including US government documents from the period, letters and journals of Armenian victims of the genocide as well as letters and journals from Turks who participated in the genocide, and newspaper reports from the time. Overall this is a strong accounting of what occurred in Armenia between 1880 and 1918 and how it impacted the Armenian people. Balakian creates a powerful picture that shows that genocide effects everyone not just the victims.
I was also most impressed to see that the build up to the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians was similar to the history in Europe before the Holocaust, and many believe that this was the prototype of all the genocides to follow, including the Holocaust, Bosnia, Ruwanda, etc. The impact of this piece of history continues to impact the Middle East to this day. This is both a sobering and informative reflection on a historical chapter about which we have heard, but know little.


