Appadurai's Fear of Small Numbers is an important contribution to the study of one of the most harmful aspects of modernity, violence against minorities. Although anthropology—a discipline prolific on the topics of ethnicity, nationalism, and religious identity, as well as modernity—is well situated to offer insight into this problem, few anthropologists have addressed it in general terms. We can thus view Appadurai's monograph as the beginning of an important conversation, and like many seminal works, his contains both monumental insights and notable missteps.