Book Critique on The Geography of Genocide - Essay Example

In his book, Allan D. Cooper also focuses and provides due emphasis on a unique perspective of genocide, that was never researched before. In this book, he explains the reason of genocides occurring mostly from ‘territorial interiors’ and never originating from any urban cosmopolitan hub or centers. This precious book has been published by the United Press of America. The book is really a treasure of knowledge and the systematic representation of facts and research materials which Allan tried to portray makes it all the more interesting.

The book is divided into six chapters and two appendices, which step by step, puts forward the thesis of the author presented in the book. The six chapters are very symmetrical in terms of content. Chapter 1 deals exclusively with the meaning and understanding of the term genocide and it is named as ‘Defining Genocide’. The chapter defines genocide both in its social as well as political perspective. Here, author reminds us about the contention put forward by Raphael Lemkin regarding the term ‘genocide’.

Chapter 2 is named as ‘Constructing Difference’ and it focuses on the issue that is very much relevant to the entire topic of discussion. This chapter explains whether there is any certainty about the constructions of “social identity” and analyzes whether this social identity truly lead to genocide in reality or not. At the last segment of this chapter, Allan explains how the concept of “creating others” plays a vital role in committing genocide and how the “imagined communities” make genocide unavoidable.

In this chapter, the author also pits forward another vital point that the process of creating “other” does not solely depend upon the structures of religion, nationality, and race or on ethnicity. What is more serious or the constant thread running down all