“A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide

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Basic Books, May 14, 2013 - Political Science - 640 pages

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize!

An impassioned critique of America’s repeated failure to stop genocides around the world, from a New York Times bestselling author and former US Ambassador to the UN.

“An angry, brilliant, fiercely useful, absolutely essential book.” —New Republic

In her Pulitzer Prize-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, former Ambassador and current Harvard professor Samantha Power asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow “never again” repeatedly fail to stop genocide?

Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington’s top policy makers, access to declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power provides the answer in “A Problem from Hell”, a groundbreaking work that shows how decent Americans inside and outside the government refused to get involved despite chilling warnings, and tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act.

 

Contents

Preface
14
Race Murder
25
A Crime Without a Name
The Crime With a Name
Lemkins
A Most Lethal Pair of Foes
Helpless Giant
Speaking Loudly and Looking for a Stick
Mostly in a Listening Mode
Getting Creamed
A Dog and a Fight
Lemkins Courtroom Legacy
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments

Human Rights and Chemical Weapons Use Aside
No More than Witnesses at a Funeral
Index
Copyright

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About the author (2013)

Samantha Power is a professor of practice at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. She served as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Special Assistant to President Barack Obama, and a freelance war correspondent. Power is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller The Education of an Idealist. She lives in Massachusetts.

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