Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn, Genocide: the power and problems of a concept

Andrea Graziosi and Frank Sysyn's Genocide: the power and problems of a concept explores the inherent tensions surrounding the definition of this crime and makes a significant contribution to the study of genocide. As the introduction points out, genocide presents an intrinsic ‘friction between a legal and thus basically rigid concept, and the multifaceted realities explored by research in fields such as history, anthropology, law, area studies, gender studies, and the history of ideas’ (p. 3). The book aims to ‘contribute to a more nuanced understanding’ of genocide and shed light on the challenges and inner contradictions of this crime (p. 3). To do so, the contributors review the history of genocide in the twentieth century with a variety of chapters that may be of interest to a broad audience studying genocide, history, sociology and International Relations (IR).