This illustrated lecture, examines the ideologies behind outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present, focusing on worldwide colonial exterminations from the Caribbean to Korea, and twentieth-century case studies including the Nazi Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur. Professor Kiernan identifies connections, patterns, and recurring features that often gave early warning of the catastrophe to come: racism or religious prejudice, territorial expansionism, and cults of antiquity and agrarianism. A range of historical evidence thus offers telltale signs for predicting and preventing future genocides.
