For centuries conquerors, missionaries, and political movements acting in the name of a single god, nation, or race have sought to remake human identities. Tracing the rise of exclusive forms of identity over the past 1500 years, this innovative book explores both the creation and destruction of exclusive identities, including those based on nationalism and monotheistic religion. Benjamin Lieberman focuses on two critical phases of world history: the age of holy war and conversion, and the age of nationalism and racism. His cases include the rise of Islam, the expansion of medieval Christianity, Spanish conquests in the Americas, Muslim expansion in India, settler expansion in North America, nationalist cleansing in modern Europe and Asia, and Nazi Germany's efforts to build a racial empire. He convincingly shows that efforts to transplant and expand new identities have paradoxically generated long periods of both stability and explosive violence that remade the human landscape around the world.
Industry Reviews
Lieberman (Fitchburg State Univ.) proficiently documents the destruction, creation, and intriguing dual realities that emerge when groups attempt to plant their universal and exclusive ideologies in foreign soil. The author builds off his previous work on genocide by offering seven essays documenting the varying intensities of violence and genocide resulting from monotheistic expansion (the realm of Islam and Christendom), nation building (North American colonial frontier and early-20th-century Balkan nation-states), and racial empire (Nazi Germany). Lieberman demonstrates in each historical episode that the question "was it genocide?" is not the crucial topic. He contends that genocidal actions were one of many methods (persuasion, teaching, narratives, and remaking local geographies) utilized to create identity. Thus, the important question becomes how and why certain methods and levels of genocide were used in particular times and places. Lieberman convincingly demonstrates through historical record and thoughtful storytelling how practicality determined the particular method of implanting an ideology/identity. A main contribution to the literature concerns his theory that some of the worst violence emanated from the tension due to dual realities, which, Lieberman contends, is inherent in attempts at remaking identities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
