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Putting forward the argument that the strength of democracies can be measured in how well minorities - especially ethnic and racial minorities - are treated, Larry May's
Ethnic Cleansing maintains that unjust ethnic cleansing is one of the greatest challenges to the modern institutions of pluralistic and multi-cultural states.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Setting the Problem
2. A Proposed "Consensus" Definition
3. Ancient "Ethnic" Atrocities
4. The Trail of Tears
5. Darfur
6. Bosnia: The "Paradigm Case"?
7. The West Bank and Gaza Today
8. The Meaning of the Term "Ethnic"
9. The Meaning of the Term "Cleansing"
10. Identity and Ethnicity
11. Minority Rights
12. Destroying Versus Cleansing
13. Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity
14. The "Divorce" Metaphor
15. The Role of International Criminal Law
16. Prosecuting Perpetrators of Ethnic Cleansing
17. Defenses for Ethnic Cleansing
18. Voluntary Population Transfers
19. Forced Transfers and the "Eminent Domain" Metaphor
20. Justice After Ethnic Cleansing
21. Is Ethnic Cleansing Ever Necessary?
22. The Misuse of the Idea of Purity
23. Conclusions
Bibliography
About the author
Larry May is an internationally renowned social/political philosopher and legal theorist who has published more than three dozen books. He is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at Vanderbilt University and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. He has published a four-volume study of the moral foundations of international criminal law and a three-volume history of legal and political thought. He is the co-author of
Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach (Routledge, 2016) and author of
Trafficking and the Conscience of Humanity (Routledge, 2024).
Summary
Putting forward the argument that the strength of democracies can be measured in how well minorities – especially ethnic and racial minorities – are treated, Larry May’s Ethnic Cleansing maintains that unjust ethnic cleansing is one of the greatest challenges to the modern institutions of pluralistic and multi-cultural states.
