The Origins of Violence : Religion, History and Genocide

The only good thing about this book is that it sums up previous ideas regarding genocide in ancient texts. But whenever John Docker starts talking about his own ideas or conclusions, you can see straight off that the guy is aiming to be provocative and demagogical in that he always gives them to you in the same breath that he feeds you his political views. I'm sorry, but thats just not the way academic books are supposed to be written, most of the time it seems like he's running for a political office instead of researching the subject objectively. I am a grad student in Postmodern Literature with a BA in Ancient Literature, have read many books and articles about violence and religion, and can safely say by any standard that John Docker's book is in REALLY bad taste. He himself adds nothing to the research being done in this subject and only tries to use it as a platform to promote his own political views. If you want to read about violence in the bible, you might want to check out Regina Schwartz "The Curse of Cain". She writes about the same subject Docker claims to write about only she actually gives unique insights on the biblical texts and analyzes them in a thorough and scientific way that produces an exciting new interpretation of the texts and contributes to the on going research of preventing genocide and group violence in the modern day world. To sum it up: Do yourself a favor and DONT spend your money on this book. The topic sounds tempting, but there are other,more informative and relevant books out there on this subject that are much more worth the time and money. CONTENTS 8 Preface and acknowledgements 12 Introduction 18 1. Genocide as ancient practice: chimpanzees, humans, agricultural society 30 Raphaël Lemkin 31 Jane Goodall 34 Jared Diamond 46 Galarrwuy Yunupingu 51 Hugh Brody 52 2. Genocide, and questioning of genocide, in the ancient Greek world: Herodotus and Thucydides 56 Historical writing 58 Herodotus 59 Thucydides 64 Genocide and the honour of nations 67 Athens invades Sicily 70 The challenge to Athens 72 Conclusion: speaking to the future 74 3. Genocide, trauma and world upside down in ancient Greek tragedy: Aeschylus and Euripides 78 Lemkin’s analytic method 79 Genocidal consciousness in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon 82 Perpetrator and victim consciousness in Euripides’Hecabe: terror and trauma 86 Andromache: the slave as the stranger who disturbs 92 War, genocide, and female and child suffering: The Women of Troy 99 Conclusion 102 4. Utopia and dystopia: Plato and Cicero’s Republics 106 Plato 109 Cicero 115 Debating the virtues of empire, Rome, natural law 121 Conclusion: ‘The Dream of Scipio’ 126 5. Victimology and genocide: the Bible’s Exodus,Virgil’s Aeneid 130 Victimology and genocidal violence: Exodus and the Aeneid 133 Exodus (and Joshua and Judges) 134 The Aeneid 146 Narrative and counter-narrative: the costs of conquest, colonization, empire 149 Women and men 152 Orientalism and European identity 155 Conclusion 156 6. Roman settler imperialism in Britain: narrative and counter-narrative in Tacitus’s Agricola and Germania 162 Affirmative narrative 165 Counter-narrative 169 Conclusion: a divided legacy 174 7. The honourable colonizer 178 Promoters and adventurers 179 Founding legends 186 International law, early modern English style 189 Biography and morality 191 The right to colonize 194 Honourable colonization in The Tempest 199 Conclusion 203 8. Was the Enlightenment the origin of the Holocaust? 206 Spinoza 212 Toland 217 Philosemitism and Islamophilia 222 Hume, Lyotard, Deleuze 225 Conclusion 230 Conclusion: Can there be an end to violence? 234 Notes 236 Index 266 Genocide is commonly understood to be a terrible aberration in human behaviour, performed by evil, murderous regimes such as the Nazis and dictators like Suharto and Pinochet. John Docker argues that the roots of genocide go far deeper into human nature than most people realise.

Genocide features widely in the Bible, the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and debates about the Enlightenment. These texts are studied in depth to trace the origins of violence through time and across civilisations. Developing the groundbreaking work of Raphaël Lemkin, who invented the term 'genocide', Docker guides us from the dawn of agricultural society, through classical civilisation to the present, showing that violence between groups has been integral to all periods of history.

This revealing book will be of great interest to those wishing to understand the roots of genocide and why it persists in the modern age. Genocide is commonly understood to be a terrible aberration in human behavior, performed by evil, murderous regimes such as the Nazis and dictators like Suharto and Pinochet. John Docker argues that the roots of genocide go far deeper into human nature than most people realize. Genocide features widely in the Bible, the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and debates about the Enlightenment. These texts are studied in depth to trace the origins of violence through time and across civilizations. Developing the groundbreaking work of Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term 'genocide', Docker guides us from the dawn of agricultural society, through classical civilization to the present, showing that violence between groups has been integral to all periods of history. This revealing book will be of great interest to those wishing to understand the roots of genocide and why it persists in the modern age Genocide is commonly understood to be a terrible aberration in human behaviour, performed by evil, murderous regimes such as the Nazis and dictators like Suharto and Pinochet. John Docker argues that the roots of genocide go far deeper into human nature than most people realise.Genocide features widely in the Bible, the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and debates about the Enlightenment. These texts are studied in depth to trace the origins of violence through time and across civilisations. Developing the groundbreaking work of Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term 'genocide', Docker guides us from the dawn of agricultural society, through classical civilisation to the present, showing that violence between groups has been integral to all periods of history.This revealing book will be of great interest to those wishing to understand the roots of genocide and why it persists in the modern age "This book "discuss[es] violence and genocide, and question[s] ... violence and genocide, as constitutive of the human condition down the ages. [The] focus is not on violence between individuals, but on intergroup violence. [The] aim is to evoke and explain such intergroup violence in ways that include both physical violence and the violence that inheres in language and culture, in ideas, notions, concepts, narratives, and images."--Provided by publisher Genocide is understood to be an aberration in human behaviour, performed by evil, murderous regimes such as the Nazis and dictators like Suharto and Pinochet. This work guides us from the dawn of agricultural society, through classical civilisation, showing that violence between groups has been integral to all periods of history