Knowing about Genocide by Joachim J. Savelsberg

Open Access

Knowing about Genocide Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles

by Joachim J. Savelsberg (Author)
March 2021
First Edition
Paperback
$34.95, £27.00
Title Details

Rights: Available worldwide
Pages: 264
ISBN: 9780520380189
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.99
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 17 illustrations, 1 map, 7 tables

The pandemic has created major supply chain challenges for publishers, manufacturers, warehousing facilities and shipping companies. Please allow for a minimum of 15 business days to receive your order. If you need your order sooner, consider purchasing from one of our retail partner links in the buying options. Thank you!

About the Book From Our Blog About the Author Reviews Awards Learn More Media Related Books

About the Book

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of the University of Minnesota. Learn more at the TOME website, available at openmonographs.org.

How do victims and perpetrators generate conflicting knowledge about genocide? Using a sociology of knowledge approach, Savelsberg answers this question for the Armenian genocide committed in the context of the First World War. Focusing on Armenians and Turks, he examines strategies of silencing, denial, and acknowledgment in everyday interaction, public rituals, law, and politics. Drawing on interviews, ethnographic accounts, documents, and eyewitness testimony, Savelsberg illuminates the social processes that drive dueling versions of history. He reveals counterproductive consequences of denial in an age of human rights hegemony, with implications for populist disinformation campaigns against overwhelming evidence.

From Our Blog

Hear from UCP Authors at ASC 2021

UCP has a strong program in Criminology and Criminal Justice, with several of our authors are participating in the American Society of Criminology’s 2021 Author Meets Critics sessions. Hear from our authors, …

UC Press May Award Winners

UC Press is proud to publish award-winning authors and books across many disciplines. Below are several of our recent award winners. Please join us in celebrating these scholars by sharing the news! …

On Recognition and Denial of Injustice in Times of Human Rights Hegemony: Minneapolis and Washington

By Joachim J. Savelsberg, author of Knowing about Genocide: Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles The past week marked historic recognition of injustice and suffering. In Minneapolis on April 20, a jury found …

About the Author

Joachim J. Savelsberg is Professor of Sociology and Law and holder of the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Representing Mass Violence: Conflicting Responses to Human Rights Violations in Darfur.

Reviews

"Savelsberg’s sociological analysis of the knowledge about the Armenian genocide is an important contribution to the fields of sociology, law, political science, and history. . . . His book enhances our understanding of how knowledge about mass crimes is shaped, disseminated, sedimented, denied, and acknowledged by contending parties."—Critical Inquiry

"In 2021, as we witness the denial of racism, life-threatening viruses, and systemic violence, Savelsberg’s analysis of the epistemic debates surrounding the Armenian Genocide shows us a pathway forward where social actors mobilize against those in power to create new public repertoires of knowledge."
—Social Forces

"This pioneering sociology of knowledge of the Armenian genocide is critical for understanding the background to Turkish denial as the final stage of genocide. Savelsberg’s epistemic study is a warning against a revived shade of an Orwellian order, with its 'alternative realities' and 'post-truths.'"—Dr. Claire Mouradian, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris

"Knowledge denial is a deadly phenomenon and an urgent problem. Confronting the Armenian genocide, Joachim Savelsberg illuminates how mass harm has been negated or acknowledged, through painstaking research, unrivaled expertise, and ethical commitment."—Lois Presser, author of Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm

"Savelsberg has done a brilliant job in this very unique work that for the first time analyzes the Armenian genocide from the vantage point of knowledge construction. He aptly brings in the standpoints of Armenians and Turks on the one side and analyzes the layering of knowledge through interaction to sedimentation and finally to rituals. A must-read for all interested in collective violence, social movements, and sociology of knowledge."—Fatma Müge Göçek, author of Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789–2009