Synopsis
Mann argues that modern ethnic cleansing is not a relapse into barbarism but a dark byproduct of the ideal of rule by a unified ethnic people.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workMurderous ethnic cleansing arises when the democratic idea of rule by the people is fused with the notion that the people is a single ethnic group.
It implicates the logic of ethnic nationalism within modern democracy itself rather than treating genocide as pre-modern savagery.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities.
Reading note
Approach it as dense comparative case analysis; the argument builds across many genocides, not a single one.
Best paired with
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities