The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century. By Manus I. Midlarsky. New York: Cambridge University Press, 480p. $75.00 cloth, $28.99 paper.

An impressive body of work is emerging that aspires to explain what appears to defy explanation: genocide. Although most of these studies focus on individual cases, scholars are increasingly developing theoretical frameworks and applying a comparative method to explain not individual genocides but the very phenomenon. Manus Midlarsky's highly ambitious, original, and impressive book aspires to bring us closer to understanding genocide in the contemporary age. Avoiding monocausal explanations that locate homicidal tendencies either in cultural or strategic variables, Midlarsky draws from international relations theory, comparative politics, and psychology to explain what makes genocide imaginable and executable. Written with controlled passion by a scholar deeply committed to using social science theory and methods to understand this highly emotional topic, The Killing Trap is an invaluable contribution to genocide studies.