Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe FROM THE PUBLISHER
Of all the horrors of the last century--perhaps the bloodiest century of the past millennium--ethnic cleansing ranks among the worst. The term burst forth in public discourse in the spring of 1992 as a way to describe Serbian attacks on the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but as this landmark book attests, ethnic cleansing is neither new nor likely to cease in our time.
Norman Naimark, distinguished historian of Europe and Russia, provides an insightful history of ethnic cleansing and its relationship to genocide and population transfer. Focusing on five specific cases, he exposes the myths about ethnic cleansing, in particular the commonly held belief that the practice stems from ancient hatreds. Naimark shows that this face of genocide had its roots in the European nationalism of the late nineteenth century but found its most virulent expression in the twentieth century as modern states and societies began to organize themselves by ethnic criteria. The most obvious example, and one of Naimark's cases, is the Nazi attack on the Jews that culminated in the Holocaust. Naimark also discusses the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the expulsion of Greeks from Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War of 1921-22; the Soviet forced deportation of the Chechens-Ingush and the Crimean Tatars in 1944; the Polish and Czechoslovak expulsion of the Germans in 1944-47; and Bosnia and Kosovo.
In this harrowing history, Naimark reveals how over and over, as racism and religious hatreds picked up an ethnic name tag, war provided a cover for violence and mayhem, an evil tapestry behind which nations acted with impunity.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Naimark (history, Stanford) injects a needed measure of clarity into a literature hitherto befogged by passion and sloppy language. He separates the concept of ethnic cleansing, a 1990s term referring to the mass expulsion of minority populations, from genocide, a term now used so cavalierly that it has almost lost all real meaning. Equally important, he imbeds ethnic cleansing in the history of 20th-century Europe. First, the author traces the idea of ethnic purification to the rise of ethnonationalism in the 19th century. Fires of Hatred thus undercuts the standard wisdom that holds ancient enmities responsible for atrocities perpetrated in the modern era. Second, the book shows that this repellent practice was not a Serb invention. Indeed, during the recent Bosnian wars, the Serbs consciously aped the examples of the Young Turks and the Nazis. Students of history and international relations are indebted to professor Naimark for these sobering insights. Strongly recommended for academic and larger public library collections.--James R. Holmes, Fletcher Sch. of Law & Diplomacy, Belmont, MA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
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