'Manus Midlarsky, a leading scholar of war, has written a book of monumental significance. He emerges here as the pioneering thinker who has produced the first truly rigorous and comparative theory of genocide. As must be true of any ground-breaking effort to understand such a fundamental and horrific phenomenon, his book will elicit much deserved praise and will provoke counter arguments and intelligent debate. However the field of genocide studies will evolve, this book will be the benchmark against which all future work will be compared. Not only is his theory highly original and compelling, but it is also written with a depth of feeling and beauty of language that recommends it to any reader concerned to improve the world and to save even one human life.' Bruce Bueno de Mesquita. Silver Professor and Chair, New York University, and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University