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A review by jsilber42
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
5.0
A Problem from Hell is a very powerful and informative book that gives an overview of America's responses (or lack thereof) to genocide in the 20th century. It asks the question: why has the U.S. failed to act to stop (or attempt to stop) genocides from happening? To answer this question, the author analyzes the American reaction to six different genocides (Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Iraq/Kurds, Rwanda, and Serbia/Bosnia/Kosovo) to examine what we knew, what we did, and why, and see what sorts of patterns emerge. Her sad but realistic conclusion is that a lack of political/moral "will" to act combine with a self-serving political calculus (intervening carries much greater political risk than failure to act) mean that barring changes, we are very unlikely to act to prevent genocide now or in the future.
A Problem from Hell proceeds roughly chronologically, starting with the Armenian genocide in Turkey during WWI, and ending with the UN intervention in Kosovo. Along with the genocide "case studies", Samantha Power covers the efforts of Raphael Lemkin, coiner of the term, to get the world to adopt a ban on genocide as international law. While remaining tasteful and fairly restrained, the book does present atrocities to convey the horror of events, so it can be (and should be!) disturbing.
While I believe the book accomplishes its goals very well, it is far from perfect. It does a relatively poor job at filling in the reader on background history and context for several of the genocides (particularly Serbia/Yugoslavia) - depending on your familiarity with 20th century history and your willingness to do a little bit of research, this may or may not be an issue for you. On the flip side, it sometimes get bogged down in more detail than is necessary to get the point across, so pacing can be a problem. The biggest legitimate criticism of the book, I think, is that Power fails to give due coverage to arguments against intervention. She does acknowledge them, but she doesn't really concede much validity to them. And finally, you make take issue with events not covered - Stalinist and Maoist crackdowns are not mentioned, for example. Whether they failed to meet the definition of genocide or whether they were cut for other reasons, I'm not sure.
Overall, I think this is a very powerful and fascinating book and well worth your time.
A Problem from Hell proceeds roughly chronologically, starting with the Armenian genocide in Turkey during WWI, and ending with the UN intervention in Kosovo. Along with the genocide "case studies", Samantha Power covers the efforts of Raphael Lemkin, coiner of the term, to get the world to adopt a ban on genocide as international law. While remaining tasteful and fairly restrained, the book does present atrocities to convey the horror of events, so it can be (and should be!) disturbing.
While I believe the book accomplishes its goals very well, it is far from perfect. It does a relatively poor job at filling in the reader on background history and context for several of the genocides (particularly Serbia/Yugoslavia) - depending on your familiarity with 20th century history and your willingness to do a little bit of research, this may or may not be an issue for you. On the flip side, it sometimes get bogged down in more detail than is necessary to get the point across, so pacing can be a problem. The biggest legitimate criticism of the book, I think, is that Power fails to give due coverage to arguments against intervention. She does acknowledge them, but she doesn't really concede much validity to them. And finally, you make take issue with events not covered - Stalinist and Maoist crackdowns are not mentioned, for example. Whether they failed to meet the definition of genocide or whether they were cut for other reasons, I'm not sure.
Overall, I think this is a very powerful and fascinating book and well worth your time.