Political Violence: Belief, Behavior, and Legitimation [Hardcover]

A collection of original case studies of different types of political violence in the 20th and 21st century inspired by the pioneering work of Robert Conquest.?It focuses?on the origins, manifestations and legitimation of such violence?and includes?the former Soviet Union, Mao's China, Castro's Cuba and radical-militant Islam.Introduction: Robert Conquest's Work and Contemporary Political Violence; P.Hollander PART I:?SOVIET COMMUNISM The Reception and Significance of The Great Terror; J.Rubenstein Stalin and the Question of Genocide; N.Naimark Leadership Succession and Political Violence in the Soviet Union Following Stalin's Death; M.Kramer Gulag Survivors After Stalin; S.F.Cohen The Mass Media in the Service of Communist Totalitarianism; L.Edwards Post-Communist Political Violence and the Litvinenko Case; J.Dunlop PART II: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES Chinese Political Violence Under Mao and Its Official Interpretations; A.Waldron The System of Repression in Cuba: Policies, Institutions and Victims; M.Werlau Latin American Revolutions and Their Ideologies; M.Falcoff Postcolonial Violence in Africa and Its Western Perceptions; A.Daniels Apologists of Totalitarianism: Islamic and Communist; I.Warraq Stalinist and Islamic Terror; S.P.Cohen The Roots of Arab and Muslim Violence; D.Pryce-Jones

Political Violence focuses on some of the lowest points of a 20th century marked by extremes, where ideological storms - primarily but not exclusively Marxist - drove human beings in large numbers onto the wildest, and most deadly, shores of politics. Untangling various strands of violent political contestation among would-be leaders, accounting for and memorializing millions of their victims, and making sense of the sources of such horrors and the ways in which, in some cases, they ceased - but in others, persist - are tasks of importance. In this book, a distinguished and sophisticated group of scholars and analysts takes them on. Their efforts yield impressive results, wlW