ABSTRACT
Since its first publication in 2006, my book Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction has become perhaps the most widely used undergraduate and graduate textbook in genocide studies. It has also demonstrated some appeal for general readers, and for students down to the elementary-school level. 2 The book’s success invites some reflection on its conception and content, to illustrate some of the challenges and key choices involved in shaping the project; providing a coherent overview of a vast, tangled, and highly contentious subject; engaging readers across a broad age-range and level of specialization; individualizing both the victim of genocide and the perpetrator; and directing the whole initiative not only to an abstract and dispassionate summation of the phenomenon of genocide, but to a normative-political project aimed at suppressing genocidal outbreaks (whenever possible) and marginalizing genocide (to the extent possible) in human affairs. What kind of impact can I have, as a scholar, a teacher, an activist? How does one best contribute to promoting the values and sense of global citizenship required, in my view, if we are to undermine genocidal practices and institutions?
