The central topic for "A Problem from Hell:" America and the Age of Genocide is atrocity. Throughout the chapters, Power presents one instance of genocide after another. In each case, the common thread is a government trying to exterminate a group of people within its borders. As Lemkin argued, the victimized group can be targeted for a number of reasons: ethnicity, religion, politics, or race. The key factor is that the group is targeted not for what they have done, but for who they are. This means that the majority of the victims will be innocent bystanders and civilians. They were not soldiers fighting in battle or revolutionaries.
The instances that Power discusses are varied ; however, they all involve the loss of life, often in the form of mass executions and massacres. The genocide in.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 812 words. This
study guide contains 19,894 words (approx. 66 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our "A Problem From Hell:" America and the Age of Genocide Access Pass.
