Brutality and Desire / Genders and Sexualities in History (PDF)

MATTHIAS BJORNLUND Historian and Independent Scholar specializing in the Armenian Genocide
RAPHAËLLE BRANCHE Lecturer, the University of Paris 1-La Sorbonne, France
RICHARD S. FOGARTY Assistant Professor of History, the State University of New York at Albany, USA
LULU ANNE HANSEN PhD Candidate in Contemporary History, the University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg
TERESA IACOBELLI PhD Candidate in the Department of History, the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada
MARIE-ANNE MATARD-BONUCCI Professor of Contemporary History, the Université de Grenoble II, France
REGINA MÜHLHÄUSER Hamburg Institute for Social Research, Germany
NA'AMA SHIK The International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Israel
ROBERT SOMMER Phd Candidate in Cultural Studies, the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
EMMA VICKERS PhD Candidate, the University of Lancaster, UK

'Many myths have been produced about sexual pleasures and sexual terror in war and genocide. Dagmar Herzog's outstanding, disturbing, and ultimately fascinating anthology is the first to seriously historicize this most sensitive topic. Sexual desire was enmeshed in brutal violence all over Europe's most destructive century, but it was so in surprisingly diverse ways. A pathbreaking reference book and a must-read for each student of military history, gender history, and Holocaust and genocide studies.'

Thomas Kühne, Clark University, USA

'This wonderful book makes a powerful contribution to the history of Europe in the 20th century. With their complex and comparative treatment of wars from the Armenian genocide, to the Holocaust, colonization and decolonization, and the recent conflict in the Balkans these collected essays carefully historicize the meanings and modalities of sexualized violence and sexual desire. Together they brilliantly demonstrate the intimate and integral ties between the history of sexuality and the history of European war.'

- Judith Surkis, Centre for European Studies, Harvard University, USA

'Scholars and instructors from a broad range of disciplines (European history, military history, gender studies, imperialism, racism) will be grateful for this path-breaking collection of essays that analyze the complex intersections of sexuality and war from the Armenian genocide to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. By focusing not only on sexual violence but also on desire and the consensual sexuality made possible by the dislocation and anonymity of war, the authors of this fine book also provide an important history of both female and male sexuality during Europe's bloody century.'

- Maria Höhn, Vassar College, USA

'Astonishing and unforgettable, this book is one of a kind. Its explorations into the taboo territory of sex and war span the 20th century, from Anatolia to Ethiopia, Auschwitz, Algeria,