Ben Kiernan. Blood and Soil: A World History of and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. New Haven: Press, 2007. x + 724 pp. $40.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-300-10098-3.

Reviewed by John M. Cox

Published on H-German (October, 2009)

Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher

With this monumental book, Ben F. Kiernan pation with restoring purity and order" (p. 27); has made an immense contribution to the feld of cults of cultivation or agriculture, which among genocide studies--and to felds ranging beyond it. other things legitimize conquest, as the aggressors The result of extensive research and deep refec‐ "claim a unique capacity to put conquered lands tion, it challenges scholars of genocide with its into productive use" (p. 29); and expansionism. bold theses; delivers a laudably inclusive invento‐ Kiernan has developed and enriched this theory ry of genocidal violence spanning many centuries; over the course of several books and articles. In and represents a powerful example of a well-syn‐ the infuential The Specter of Genocide (2003), co- thesized world history, one that will be highly edited with Robert Gellately, Kiernan concluded valuable for scholarly as well as non-academic au‐ his own essay by arguing in a more tentative fash‐ diences. ion for the combustible potential of these ele‐ Rather than simply subjecting his readers to ments: "As in the Armenian Genocide, the Holo‐ an oppressive account of human slaughter--al‐ caust, , Bosnia, and Rwanda, the tragedy though inevitably the book does this as well-- of East Timor demonstrates the virulent, violent Blood and Soil ofers an original analysis, uniting mix of racism, religious prejudice, expansionism, these dreadful episodes from antiquity to the and idealization of cultivation. Each of these fac‐ present. Kiernan argues that a convergence of tors is, of course, often a relatively harmless com‐ four factors underpins the causes of genocide ponent of nationalist ideology. Taken singly, none through the ages: racism, which "becomes genoci‐ is a sufcient condition even for mass murder. dal when perpetrators imagine a world without But their deadly combination is a persistent fea‐ certain kinds of people in it" (p. 23); cults of antiq‐ ture of twentieth-century genocide."[1] uity, usually connected to an urgent need to arrest In Blood and Soil, Kiernan places obsessions a "perceived decline" accompanying a "preoccu‐ with antiquity and agriculture more prominently H-Net Reviews and weaves these four components together in cipal arguments. While Kiernan's thesis is proba‐ varying ways. Sometimes, genocidal violence was bly more easily adaptable to ancient, medieval, "reinforced by cults of antiquity and agriculture"; and early modern than to those of in several cases from early modern Southeast more recent times, Blood and Soil amply demon‐ Asia, expansionism in combination with cults of strates the murderous potential of this combina‐ antiquity and agriculture provided "an intellectu‐ tion of ideological forces in atrocities as recent as al backdrop to mass killing"; in other examples, those in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Yugoslavia. The "settler preoccupations with antiquity and agri‐ author also skillfully applies his theory to certain culture" contributed to genocidal outbursts (p. heavily researched topics, such as Nazism's ideo‐ 168). It is not always readily apparent how or why logical origins and precursors. "Land and race these factors--in particular, obsessions with agri‐ were linked," Kiernan avers, in the ideology and culture and antiquity--produce genocidal vio‐ movements of the late nineteenth century that lence, but the author is modest enough to ac‐ saw the German peasantry as the "true embodi‐ knowledge that those factors "often accompanied ment of the Volk" and that fused romantic agrari‐ genocide but cannot fully explain it" (p. 168). anism with other strains of conservative and na‐ Occasionally, the analytic reader may ques‐ tionalist thought (p. 378). tion these categories. For instance, confdence in In addition to its bold efort at unifying dis‐ the book's chief thesis may be undermined by the parate historical events, Kiernan's book is distinc‐ caveat, made in the introduction, that "catastro‐ tive in other fundamental ways. In contrast to oth‐ phes lacking more than one of the major features er major overviews of genocide, two-thirds of of genocide ... identifed" were "excluded" from Blood and Soil is devoted to mass killings that pre‐ this study (p. 38). And Kiernan sometimes stretch‐ date 1900. More than two hundred pages--all of es to incorporate the agrarian and antiquity part 2 of the three-part book--are devoted to "Set‐ themes, as when seizing upon the utterances of tler Colonialism," chronicling atrocities that ac‐ "metaphors of cultivation" or "agrarian companied land-grabs and ethnic cleansing in Ire‐ metaphors" by individuals in the service of vio‐ land, colonial North America, Australia, the Unit‐ lent regimes. In a 2001 article on the Cambodian ed States, and nineteenth-century Africa. The sec‐ genocide, Kiernan pointed to another genocidal tion on Africa begins with the French eforts to dynamic--the "twin peaks" of "national ambition conquer, pacify, and settle Algeria between 1830 and national insecurity"--that could have been a and 1875, one of several oft-neglected episodes stronger impetus in some of the episodes chroni‐ that Kiernan masterfully integrates. This second cled in Blood and Soil than the convergence of the section is in some ways Blood and Soil's strongest, four factors the book stresses.[2] Kiernan occa‐ a powerful complement to the recent work of A. sionally invokes but does not develop this theme Dirk Moses, among others, that links not simply of ambition alongside insecurity in Blood and colonialism, but also settler colonialism and impe‐ Soil. (In relation to Bosnia, for example, Kiernan rialist occupation, to racism and genocidal vio‐ quotes Norman Cigar in arguing that Serb nation‐ lence. And, as Kiernan reminds us, some of the alists' "dualistic self-view of superiority and ac‐ victims of the Europeans' colonial depredations companying vulnerability bordering on paranoia" acted with relative magnanimity: Herero chief fueled the genocide [p. 588]). Samuel Maharero's order "to spare women, chil‐ Nonetheless, Blood and Soil's patient accumu‐ dren, other Africans, and non-German whites" lation of detail and evidence should win over certainly stands in sharp contrast to General readers who may initially be skeptical of its prin‐ Lothar von Trotha's infamous "extermination or‐ der," as well as the bellowing of German newspa‐

2 H-Net Reviews pers that "no war may be conducted humanely gallery of depraved killers: the sixteenth-century against nonhumans" (p. 382). Japanese feudal lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for in‐ In its chapter on the Holocaust, Blood and Soil stance, whose eforts at expansion and unifcation emphasizes the obsessions of Heinrich Himmler entailed the murder of tens of thousands of Kore‐ and Richard Walther Darré with the peasantry ans, and, more obscurely, the following century's and its supposed values. In contrast, according to pitiless Javanese ruler Amangjurat I, whose vic‐ the Nazi vision, the Jew was (here Kiernan quotes tims included numerous close family members Jefrey Richards) "materialist and thus the enemy and associates. of Volkist spiritualism … a rootless wanderer and A trailblazing work such as this one should therefore the opposite of Volkist rootedness," and not only posit original ideas but also elicit ques‐ in other ways a creature of the city and thereby tions. Among the issues that Blood and Soil "alien to the agrarian peasant ideal of the Volk" prompts further refection upon: How small can a (p. 431). In fascinating, disturbing detail Kiernan targeted group be for us to classify its extinction also outlines the scale, grandiosity, and other‐ or near-extinction as a genocide?[5] The destruc‐ worldliness of the Nazis' ethnic engineering and tion of the Pequots, who declined from about four population schemes. As elsewhere in this book, thousand in 1647 to approximately fve hundred a Kiernan provides an appropriate balance of anal‐ few years later, meets most standard criteria for ysis and description. While he does not over‐ genocide, and resulted from a calculated policy of whelm the reader with grisly details, his examples the English authorities. Kiernan also ofers an in‐ are exceptionally well chosen (such as an eyewit‐ cisive account of the genocide of the Tasmanian ness account from Majdanek). Without overstat‐ people, whose numbers were nearly identical to ing his case or wading too far into the contentious those of the Pequots two centuries earlier. Mod‐ "uniqueness" debate, Kiernan concludes this ern-day students of genocide can be inured, in a chapter with a concise summation of the Holo‐ sense, by the massive scale of the Holocaust. But caust's distinctive features: "A state-sponsored at‐ Kiernan implicitly suggests that, although the Pe‐ tempt at total extermination by industrialized quots' and Tasmanians' numbers were relatively murder of unarmed millions [that] has no parallel small, their cruel fates should indeed be included before or since" (p. 454).[3] in a litany of genocidal crimes. It is no longer easy to be surprised by the ca‐ A slow-motion genocide, such as that of North pacity of humans to commit cruel, depraved America's indigenous peoples, also presents a crimes against one another. As Yehuda Bauer challenge to scholars. Kiernan reports that the na‐ wrote, "The horror of the Holocaust is not that it tive population "north of the Rio Grande" declined deviated from human norms; the horror is that it from roughly 7,000,000 to 600,000 in the three didn't."[4] Nonetheless, numerous startling revela‐ centuries following the arrival of the Europeans tions leap from the grim pages of Blood and Soil. in 1492 (p. 219). Little question would remain that For example, perhaps alone among genocidal per‐ such a catastrophic decline, had it occurred over petrators, the prolonged its murder‐ the course of only a few years, would qualify it as ous activities long beyond the end of its reign, "genocide." The great expanse of time involved, sporadically massacring Vietnamese who were the multiple shifts in policy of the English and lat‐ unfortunate enough to fall into its hands as late as er American authorities, and the diversity of ex‐ the 1990s (p. 554). Kiernan also introduces or re- perience of the many dozens of Native American introduces readers to certain grisly fgures who nations have contributed to the controversy over deserve a more prominent place in history's how to characterize the tragedy of North Ameri‐

3 H-Net Reviews ca's indigenous peoples. For his part, Kiernan-- ple: "Glittering red blood blankets the earth-- who is admirably fexible and undogmatic in his blood given up to liberate the people"; the even use of the terms "genocide," "genocidal acts," and less elegant "Rainfall in Pisakh" includes the lines, "genocidal violence"--has no qualms about includ‐ "our anger shoots out at the imperialists ... and ing this long, complex story in two of the book's their reactionary lackeys, killing them until they fnest and best-researched chapters. disappear" (p. 548). Another question for genocide scholars to While the chapter Kiernan devotes to China consider: Should we regard the issue of intent has a somewhat rushed quality, it skillfully incor‐ with greater wariness and circumspection?[6] At porates Maoist China into the continuities traced times, the perpetrators made it easy to assign in this book. "Even if half the population of the genocidal intent: "Kill Koreans one by one, and world were wiped out this would not be a total empty the country," commanded Hideyoshi in disaster," opined the Great Helmsman (pp. 1597 (p. 129). But it is often not so simple to deter‐ 530-531). Such utterances were not uncommon mine intent, and perhaps when mass sufering from Mao, who ofered to sacrifce unbelievable and death results from criminal indiference, or numbers of his own population to support world could have been easily predicted by a conquering revolution. It would be illuminating to explore the or occupying power, that power is no less guilty of ways in which Mao and others developed, nur‐ genocide, if other elements of the standard defni‐ tured, and then inculcated such a nihilistic disre‐ tions are met. This problem is discussed early in gard for human life. As to whether the label of the book and appears elsewhere; as Kiernan "genocide" should be applied to the horrors of notes, the International Law Commission (estab‐ Maoist China, perhaps it is more useful to sidestep lished by the UN in 1948 at the time of the Con‐ the genocide issue with Mao, and simply desig‐ vention on the Prevention and Punishment of the nate his rule as "the worst non-genocidal regime," Crime of Genocide) holds that "a general aware‐ in Jean-Louis Margolin's astute and precise ness of the probable consequences" of destructive phrase--which is sufcient to place it where it be‐ acts "is not sufcient" (p. 17). This may be one of longs in history.[8] At any rate, Kiernan's special‐ the elements of the classic defnitions of "geno‐ ization in Asian studies is evident not only in his cide"--along with the exclusion of political groups examinations of twentieth-century Cambodia, in the 1948 defnition--that is overly legalistic and China, and Japan, but also in his chapters on late in need of revision.[7] medieval and early modern East Asia--episodes One additional area of further investigation that are rarely if ever discussed in other large- that is suggested by Blood and Soil: the similarity scale overviews of genocide. Yet geographically of the cults of violence of certain presumably the book is well balanced, and few Europeanists "left-wing" regimes (such as the Khmer Rouge) to venture as far outside their "comfort zones" as fascist cults of violence. The lyrics of Khmer Kiernan does here. Rouge anthems that Kiernan quotes are highly Ultimately, any of the book's weaknesses re‐ reminiscent of the quasi-religious glorifcation of sult from its admirable ambition and breadth, violence and martyrdom of the Iron Guard, the and are heavily outweighed by its substantial con‐ Arrow Cross, and other European fascist move‐ tributions and strengths. Blood and Soil is unsur‐ ments of the interwar and World War II era. passed among works of this nature in examining These lines from the Khmer Rouge's "The Red and uncovering the ideological and philosophical, Flag" may sufce to demonstrate that point for as well as cultural and political, underpinnings of readers less familiar with the Cambodian exam‐ genocide. However reticent some scholars may be

4 H-Net Reviews to accept the book's thesis concerning the role of Genocide Research 10 (March 2008): 111-126, and cults of antiquity and agriculture, we owe Kier‐ Martin Shaw, What is Genocide (Cambridge: Poli‐ nan a large debt for proposing this bold, richly ty, 2007), 81-90. suggestive theory, which is already exerting a [7]. Adam Jones recently noted that "[t]he po‐ strong infuence within the ever-expanding feld sition of the Rwanda tribunal (ICTR) that 'any sta‐ of genocide studies. ble and permanent group' is in fact to be accorded Notes protection under the Convention, is likely to be‐ [1]. Ben Kiernan, "Twentieth-Century Geno‐ come the norm in future judgments." Jones, Geno‐ cides: Underlying Ideological Themes from Arme‐ cide: A Comprehensive Introduction, 13. nia to East Timor," in The Specter of Genocide: [8]. Jean-Louis Margolin, "Mao's China: The Mass Murder in Historical Perspective, ed. Robert Worst Non-Genocidal Regime?" in The Historiog‐ Gellately and Ben Kiernan (Cambridge: Cam‐ raphy of Genocide, ed. Dan Stone (New York: Pal‐ bridge University Press, 2003), 51. grave Macmillan, 2008), 438-467. [2]. Ben Kiernan, "Myth, Nationalism and Genocide," Journal of Genocide Research 3 (2001): 190. [3]. While this is entirely consistent with cur‐ rent Holocaust scholarship, it might be time to re‐ consider the emphasis we place on the "industri‐ alization" of the Holocaust as a distinguishing characteristic. See Donald Bloxham and Tony Kushner, The Holocaust: Critical Historical Ap‐ proaches (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 68-70. [4]. Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (New Haven: , 2002), 42. [5]. See Adam Jones, Genocide: A Comprehen‐ sive Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2006), for a brief but illuminating discussion of this issue. As Jones points out, "We readily use 'war' to desig‐ nate" both small-scale wars, such as the so-called Soccer War of 1969 between Honduras and El Sal‐ vador, "as well as epochal descents into barbarity" such as World War II. "There seems to be no rea‐ son why we should not distinguish between larger and smaller, more or less exterminatory geno‐ cides in the same way" (20). [6]. The issue of "intent" has come under greater scrutiny recently; see, for example, Tony Barta, Norbert Finzsch, and David Stannard, "Three Responses to 'Can There be Genocide With‐ out the Intent to Commit Genocide?" Journal of

5 H-Net Reviews

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german

Citation: John M. Cox. Review of Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. H-German, H-Net Reviews. October, 2009.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25301

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

6