World Without Genocide recommends the following books to increase your understanding of the politics of genocide in the world. The first step in genocide prevention is to learn about genocides, past and present. We recommend books from many genres – history, memoir, fiction, journalists’ accounts, diaries, essays and historical fiction.
General Genocide:
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power (winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder, Daniel Chirot and Clark McCauley
Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, Adam Jones
Governments, Citizens, and Genocide: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach, Alex Alvarez
A Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, Samul Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel Charny
Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur, Ben Kiernan
Armenia:
A Shameful Act; The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Taner Akcam (Winner of the Minnesota Book Award)
Bosnia:
The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway
Cambodia:
Genocide by Proxy: Cambodian Pawn on a Superpower Chessboard, Michael Haas
Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret Prison, David Chandler
After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide, Craig Etcheson
Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79, Ben Kiernan
From Genocide to Freedom: A Life Experience Story, Pan So, Savan Prum
Beyond the Killing Fields: Voices of Nine Cambodian Survivors in America, Usha Welaratna
The Disappeared, Kim Echlin
Congo:
King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo, Bryan Mealer
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo, Michela Wrong
Darfur and Sudan:
Genocide in Darfur: Investigating the Atrocities in the Sudan, ed. Samuel Totten and Eric Markusen
Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival, Jen Marlowe with Adam Shapiro and Aisha Bain
Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, Julie Flint and Alex de Waal
Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide, Gerard Prunier
Not on our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond, Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
Genocide in Darfur: Investigating the Atrocities in the Sudan, Samuel Totten and Eric Markuse
Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror, Mahmood Mamdani
The Translator: A Memoir, Daoud Hari
Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur, Halima Bashir and Damien Lewis
Emma’s War: A True Story, Deborah Scroggins (winner of the Ridenhour Book Prize and a New York Times Notable Book); the civil war in southern Sudan
The Holocaust:
Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Lorsnay
The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, Anne Frank
Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, Francine Prose
For an excellent and very complete bibliography on the Holocaust, please see references prepared by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Rwanda:
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda, Philip Gourevitch (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction)
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Romeo Dallaire
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, Jean Hatzfield
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, Gil Courtemanche
The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda, Scott Straus
Justice on the Grass: Three Rwandan Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes, and a Nation’s Quest for Redemption, Dina Temple-Raston
Other Places, Other Cultures:
The Late Homecomer, Kao Kalia Yang
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
