How Holocausts Happen

Infobox Book |
name = How Holocausts Happen
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author = Douglas V. Porpora
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country = North America
language = English
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publisher = Temple University
release_date = 1990
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How Holocausts Happen is a book by Douglas V. Porpora that deals with the U.S. involvement in Central America in regards to their participation in the genocidal polices of Nicaraguan counterrevolutionary forces and the reaction of the general public to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

Author Information

Douglas V. Porpora is chair of the Department of Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology at Drexel University. He is an active member of NETWORK, a national social justice lobby, and is the author of 4 books which include: The Concept of Social Structure (1987), How Holocausts Happen: The United States in Central America (1990), Landscapes of the Soul: The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life (2001) and Transcendence: Critical Realism and God (2004).

The United States in Central America

Precursor

Unlike other accounts of the Holocaust and genocide, How Holocausts Happen focuses on the citizenry served or ruled by genocidal governments rather than on the governments themselves. Douglas V. Porpora argues that moral indifference and lack of interest in critical reflection are key factors that enable Holocaust-like events to happen. He characterizes American society as being typically indifferent to the fate of other people, uninformed, and anti-intellectual. Douglas V. Porpora cites numerous horrifying examples of U.S.-backed Latin American government actions against their own peasants, Indians, and dissident factions. He offers finally a theory of public moral indifference and argues that although such indifference is socially created by government, the media, churches, and other institutions, we, the public, must ultimately take responsibility for it. How Holocausts Happen is at once a scholarly examination of the nature of genocide and a stinging indictment of American society. [ [http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/725_reg.html A powerful indictment of U.S. intervention in Central America] , "Temple University, Pennsylvania", November 22, 2007]

Book Contents

Acknowledgments
# Introduction
# The Banality of Evil
# Moral Indifference, the Rise of Hitler, and the Extermination of the Jews
# The Two Faces of Genocide in Central America
# Has the United States Become a Party to Genocide? To a Holocaust-like Event?
# How We Allowed Ourselves to Become a Party to Genocide
# In the Footsteps of the Righteous Notes: Index

Denouement

Douglas V. Porpora has brought together materials and insights which extend the bounds of holocaust thinking, reveal new insights in the Nazi holocaust and the shaping of 'holocaust-like' events, and sensitize us to the ways in which indifference can allow genocides to take place. There is a sense in which Douglas V. Porpora's book is a call to action—a call for us to rise above our moral and political indifference, to take action against 'disempowerment' and the early signs of genocide-making by our governments. In the tradition of Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., this book reminds us that we are human beings first and subjects afterwards; that we do not have a moral obligation to follow orders that brutalize our fellow human beings. Its a powerful and well-researched account of the move from indifference to genocide, both in Nazi Germany and Central America. [ [http://www.denison.edu/academics/departments/philosophy/ronald_e_santoni.html Ronald Santoni ~ Philosophy Professor] , "Denison University, Ohio", November 22, 2007]

Footnotes