ABSTRACT
The author’s goal has been, and remains, to develop an understanding of genocide as a terrifyingly regular feature – almost a constant – of world history and probably of human prehistory as well. Genocide scholars have moved beyond conventionally (and safely) anathematized cases, like the Nazi and Ottoman examples, to encompass most crucially the holocausts inflicted by the West upon indigenous populations. World historical trends in genocide studies have advanced an understanding of genocide's global reach and prevalence and spawned a recognition that genocides can be studied as processes and not merely discrete events. The paradigm shift implied by the subtitle of Ward Churchill's radical and magisterial A Little Matter of Genocide – “Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present” – implies that a coherent genocidal process can be traced through centuries of historical time. “Genocide” remains a powerful heuristic and a valuable tool for understanding and inhibiting systematic, group-targeted violence.
