Book on emotions and mass atrocity now in paperback

The study of genocide and mass atrocity abounds with references to emotions like fear, shame, horror, and hatred. Yet scholars interested in the causes and dynamics of such violence have given surprisingly little attention to the emotions themselves. Historians and social scientists have often insisted that explanations of genocide and mass atrocity should be sought at the social and political levels, not in the hidden recesses of individual psychology. But emotions are not merely individual psychological phenomena; they are also powerful social and political forces, deeply involved in the history of mass violence.

In a new book, now in paperback, Thomas Brudholm and Johannes Lang invite prominent scholars in the humanities and social sciences to think about the emotions involved in mass atrocities. The result is a new perspective on the social, political, and moral dimensions of emotions in the history of collective violence and its aftermath.

“Bold and imaginative new works such as Emotions and Mass Atrocity: Philosophical and Theoretical Explorations demonstrate that our understanding [of genocide and mass atrocity] is far from complete. While scholars make frequent reference to the centrality of emotions […] in mass atrocity, few serious attempts have been made to examine emotions as a lens through which to study this phenomenon. In recent years, emotions have increasingly been the focus of historical research and Emotions and Mass Atrocity is a much-welcome and long-awaited contribution to the literature. In editing this book, Thomas Brudholm and Johannes Lang provide an important starting point for thinking seriously about emotions in the context of mass atrocity. The authors persuasively challenge conventional understanding about a phenomenon that has been heavily researched; this is no small achievement. Finally, the volume successfully illustrates why we should view emotions ‘as the powerful moral, political, and historical forces that they are.’”

Andreas Moeller, King’s College, London, Reviews in History