Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide by Barbara Coloroso (Jan 22 2008)

Paperback, ?

Publication

Penguin Canada

Description

From best-selling author Barbara Coloroso comes a timely and essential book about genocide. Through an examination of three clearly defined genocides -- the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, and the European Holocaust -- Coloroso deconstructs the causes and consequences, both to its immediate victims and to the fabric of the world at large, and proposes the conditions that must exist in order to eradicate this evil from the world. Coloroso is well known for her best-selling books that explore why children bully. In Extraordinary Evil she builds upon that research to explain why the impulse to bully is mirrored by the act of genocide. By linking the psychology of the bully to the motivation that leads a community to murder, Coloroso provides devastating and vital insight into why people kill their neighbors. Based on the author's 15 years of research and extensive travel, Extraordinary Evil is an urgently needed work in an age when acts of genocide seem to occur more frequently and are in the public's consciousness more than ever before.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Meggo
Coloroso is most known for her books on bullying and child development, so it initially took me several pages to understand why she was suddenly writing about genocide. And then the penny dropped - her argument is that genocide is bullying, writ large. I cannot fault her research, which is
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extensive and includes interviews with survivors and followers. Her argument, however, seems forced. I agree that bullying and genocidal behaviours may share parallels, however I think the conclusion that genocide is bullying is too clean, too superficial. Correlation, after all, is not causation.
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LibraryThing member bookalover89
This short history of three major genocides in history along with her analysis on bullying, makes for a very tough but deeply moving book that everyone should read
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