Jacques Semelin's Books

Purify and Destroy

The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide

By: Jacques Semelin

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Purify and Destroy

The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide

By: Jacques Semelin

How can we comprehend the sociopolitical processes that give rise to extreme violence, ethnic cleansing, or genocide? A major breakthrough in comparative analysis, Purify and Destroy demonstrates that it is indeed possible to compare the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina while respecting the specificities of each appalling phenomenon. Jacques Semelin achieves this, in part, by leading his readers through the three examples simultaneously, the unraveling of which sometimes converges but most often diverges. Semelin's method is multidisciplinary, relying not only on contemporary history but also on social psychology and political science. Based on the seminal distinction between massacre and genocide, Purify and Destroy identifies the main steps of a general process of destruction, both rational and irrational, born of what Semelin terms "delusional rationality." He describes a dynamic structural model with, at its core, the matrix of a social imaginaire that, responding to fears, resentments, and utopias, carves and recarves the social body by eliminating "the enemy." Semelin identifies the main stages that can lead to a genocidal process and explains how ordinary people can become perpetrators. He develops an intellectual framework to analyze the entire spectrum of mass violence, including terrorism, in the twentieth century and before. Strongly critical of today's political instrumentalization of the "genocide" notion, Semelin urges genocide research to stand back from legal and normative definitions and come of age as a discipline in its own right in the social sciences.

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462

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Columbia University Press

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ISBN 10

0231142838

ISBN 13

9780231142830

Purify and Destroy

The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide

By: Jacques Sémelin

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Purify and Destroy

The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide

By: Jacques Sémelin

Review: "Purify and Destroy demonstrates that it is indeed possible to compare the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia Herzegovina while respecting the specificities of each of these appalling phenomena." "Based on seminal distinction between massacre and genocide, Purify and Destroy identifies the main steps of a general process of destruction, both rational and irrational, born of what Semelin terms "delusional rationality." Semelin identifies the main stages that can lead to a genocidal process, and explains how ordinary people can become perpetrators."--Jacket

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462

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Columbia University Press

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ISBN 10

023114282X

ISBN 13

9780231142823

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

By: Jacques Semelin

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The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

By: Jacques Semelin

Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.

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Page Count

471

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190057998

ISBN 13

9780190057992

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

By: Jacques Semelin

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The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

By: Jacques Semelin

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471

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Oxford University Press

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ISBN 10

0190057998

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9780190057992

War Crimes Trials and Investigations

A Multi-Disciplinary Introduction

By: Jonathan Waterlow,Jacques Schuhmacher

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War Crimes Trials and Investigations

A Multi-Disciplinary Introduction

By: Jonathan Waterlow,Jacques Schuhmacher

This book represents the first multi-disciplinary introduction to the study of war crimes trials and investigations. It introduces readers to the numerous disciplines engaged with this complex subject, including: Forensic Anthropology, Economics and Anthropometrics, Legal History, Violence Studies, International Criminal Justice, International Relations, and Moral Philosophy. The contributors are experts in their respective fields and the chapters highlight each discipline’s major trends, debates, methods and approaches to mass atrocity, genocide, and crimes against humanity, as well as their interactions with adjacent disciplines. Case studies illustrate how the respective disciplines work in practice, including examples from the Allied Hunger Blockade, WWII, the Guatemalan and Spanish Civil Wars, the Former Yugoslavia, and Uganda. Including bibliographical essays to offer readers crucial orientation when approaching the specialist literature in each case, this edited collection equips readers with what they need to know in order to navigate a complex, and until now, deeply fragmented field. A diverse and interdisciplinary body of research, this book will be indispensable reading for scholars of war crimes.

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Page Count

347

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

3319640720

ISBN 13

9783319640723

Liber Mahameleth

By: Jacques Sesiano

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Liber Mahameleth

By: Jacques Sesiano

The Liber mahameleth is a work in Latin written in the mid-12th century based (mainly) on Arabic sources from Islamic Spain. It is now our principal source on mathematics in Islamic Spain at that time; There are few extant Arabic texts and no one is as complete as the LM. It is also the second largest mathematical work from the Latin Middle Ages (the other is by Fibonacci, some 50 years later). Since the three main manuscripts preserving it are incomplete and there are many scribal errors, a reliable Latin text has been established, which reports (in notes) the various readings of the manuscripts and the errors in them. This is how a so-called critical edition is made. This edition of the Latin text is preceded by General Introduction, describing the various manuscripts, the content of the work and what we know about its author. Part Two of the volume is a translation of the text and ends with a glossary of Latin terms. The glossary will be of great importance for the knowledge of Latin scientific terms from that time, since there is no other mathematical text of this size from the 12th century. Part Three begins with a short introduction and then analyzes all the problems from the text, with a summary of the mathematical methods involved in each chapter. The commentary is a companion to the translation and explains the author's solving methods.

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1823

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

3319039407

ISBN 13

9783319039404

Freedom Over the Airwaves

From the Czech Coup to the Fall of the Berlin Wall

By: Jacques Semelin

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Freedom Over the Airwaves

From the Czech Coup to the Fall of the Berlin Wall

By: Jacques Semelin

This book on the relationship between communications and nonviolent resistance captures a new understanding of the events that led ultimately to the fall of the authoritarian system in communist Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. In particular, it analyzes history-making acts of resistance and the movements that propelled them in Budapest in 1956, Prague in 1968, Gdansk in 1980 and East Berlin in 1989, in their own historical continuum. As we evaluate each crisis in relation to the others, we find that beyond cultural and national differences among the countries of the Soviet sphere, the knowledge of how to develop resistance was built up in a little over three generations -- a know-how that tied together means of opposition with means of media and communication. Non-provocative, nonviolent methods of action came to supersede uncontrolled forms of violence, and even the mere temptation of armed struggle. From 1968 to 1989, the empowerment of civil resistance movements in Central Europe was witnessed--a phenomenon that strengthened the re-emergence and rebuilding of "civil society." In a new Afterword penned for the English translation, Howard Barrell extends this evaluation to encompass the role of social media and digital technology in more recent and potential resistance struggles. This preeminent study offers a rare addition to understanding the transformation of half a continent.

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Page Count

312

Published Date

ISBN 10

1943271070

ISBN 13

9781943271078

Book's by Jacques Semelin

Purify and Destroy

Purify and Destroy

Purify and Destroy

Purify and Destroy

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44

War Crimes Trials and Investigations

War Crimes Trials and Investigations

Liber Mahameleth

Liber Mahameleth

Freedom Over the Airwaves

Freedom Over the Airwaves

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