SPECIAL HISTORY EVENT FRIDAY 10am: Prof Spierenburg’s paper EXPLORING THE GLOBAL HISTORY OF HOMICIDE AND MASSACRE, rather being based on primary sources, is an attempt at synthesis. It posits that homicide (ordinary murder) and massacre (or organized murder) need to be studied separately, which leads to a paradox: The historical literature on these two phenomena yields two diametrically opposed conclusions, that killing decreases over time vs. recent times as the most violent. However, whereas the first conclusion has been reached in the absence of research into the non-Western world, the second is largely due to genocide studies concentration on the last 150 years. If we dig a little deeper, there is sufficient reason to doubt the claim that our world, or recent history, is the most violent ever. The paper proceeds with a discussion of theories concerning genocide and massacre. It is concluded that most of them do not pay sufficient attention to changes in the characteristics of organized murder over time. In particular, two characteristics lend themselves easily to an examination over the long term: legitimation and the degree of publicity/ concealment. As an epilogue, a hypothesis is proposed about racial violence some 10,000 years ago. Bio: Prof Pieter Spierenburg is one of the world’s leading experts in the history of crime, punishment and murder. Prof Spierenburg received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1978. From 1977 until 2013 he worked at Erasmus University Rotterdam, most recently as extraordinary professor of Historical Criminology. He was a visiting professor at the History Department of Carnegie Mellon University (2001) and the Law School of the University of California at Berkeley (2006). Since September 2013 he is affiliated with NIOD, the Dutch Institute for Genocide and Holocaust Studies, and the Norbert Elias Foundation. He has published numerous articles and a number of books in the field of the history of crime and punishment as well as that of socio-cultural history. His works include A History of Murder: Personal Violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present (Polity, 2008), and Written in Blood: Fatal Attraction in Enlightenment Amsterdam (Ohio State University Press, 2004). His most recent book is Violence and Punishment: Civilizing the Body through Time (Polity, 2012). His present interest lies in global history, in particular that of homicide and organized murder.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 09:24:09 +0000
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