The killing compartments
Subtitle: the mentality of mass murder
By: Abram de Swaan
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 332
ISBN-13: 9780300208726
Subjects: Mass murderers; State-sponsored terrorism; Psychology; Mass murder; Psychological aspects
Other titles: Mentality of mass murder
Description: The twentieth century was among the bloodiest in the history of humanity. Untold millions were slaughtered. How people are enrolled in the service of evil is a question that continues to bedevil. In this trenchant book, Abram de Swaan offers a taxonomy of mass violence that focuses on the rank-and-file perpetrators, examining how murderous regimes recruit them and create what De Swaan calls the "killing compartments" that make possible the worst abominations without apparent moral misgiving, without a sense of personal responsibility, and, above all, without pity.--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-314) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Ordinary perpetrators and modernity : the situationist consensus; title: Widening circles of identification and disidentification; title: The transformations of violence in human history; title: Rwanda : self-destructive destruction; title: Genocidal regimes and the compartmentalization of society; title: The four modes of mass annihilation : case histories; title: Genocidal perpetrators and the compartmentalization of personality; title: Conclusion.