Description: "We didn't know." For half a century, Western politicians and intellectuals have in this fashion explained away their inaction in the face of genocide in World War II. In stark contrast, Western observers today face a daily barrage of information and images from CNN, the Internet, and newspapers about the parties and individuals responsible for the Balkan War and crimes against humanity. The stories, often accompanied by video or pictures of rape, torture, mass graves, and ethnic cleansing, available almost instantaneously, do not allow even the most disinterested viewer to ignore the grim reality of genocide. And yet, while knowledge abounds, so do rationalizations for non-intervention in Balkan affairs - the threshold of "real" genocide had yet to be reached in Bosnia; all sides were equally guilty; Islamic fundamentalism in Bosnia is a threat to the West; it will only end when they all tire of killing each other - to name but a few. This Time We Knew punctures once and for all common excuses for Western inaction in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the most egregious crimes against humanity to occur in Europe since World War II.
Brief description: Thomas Cushman is Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the founder and editor-at-large of the Journal of Human Rights. He has written or edited numerous books, including George Orwell Into the 21st Century, A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq, and This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia (NYU Press).
Review Quotes: "For people who still are wondering what was happening to the conscience of the West toward Bosnia since 1991, This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia is must reading."-- "Universal Press Syndicate"