BENJAMIN LIEBERMAN. Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. 2006. Pp. xv, 396. $27.50
2006; Oxford University Press; Volume: 111; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/ahr.111.5.1588
ISSN1937-5239
Autores Tópico(s)European history and politics
ResumoLet the reader beware. Benjamin Lieberman has assembled enough material to encourage serious misgivings about our human nature. I recommend an antidote that may restore a more balanced perspective: Paul Rusesabagina's An Ordinary Man: The True Story Behind Hotel Rwanda (2006). The horrors and massive violations of human rights cover just about every page. However, while this book is a depressing collection of examples of “man's inhumanity to man” (and to woman), it raises several important issues in order to impose some analytic rigor. The first concerns the definition of “ethnic cleaning.” While it is aimed at imposing homogeneity on a population, it covers a wide variety of processes that are intended to lead to the same result. Among these processes the author discusses expulsion and forced migration, population transfers, pogroms, voluntary flight from persecution, and, finally, genocide. A second issue concerns the actors in such ethnic cleaning. Here the author offers a particularly useful analysis. The “perpetrators” usually get the most attention, although it is important to distinguish between actors that are states, groups, or individuals. Lieberman provides illustrations for each of these perpetrators. The “victims” may be targeted because of their nationality, race, or religion as defined by the perpetrators. As actors their choices are usually very limited: they may attempt to resist or to flee, although neither will affect the outcome of the ethnic cleaning process. The final group of actors the author considers are the “bystanders.” At one extreme they may simply look the other way, while at the other extreme they may benefit from looting or stealing the victims' possessions. Between these extremes the bystanders' behavior may range from simple interest to approval and to encouragement.
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