insights. Eric Markusen and Roger Smith also read the manuscript and pro-
vided me with extensive comments and criticisms. Their academic counsel
and friendship mean a great deal. Both are innovative scholars and, more
importantly, nice people, and one cannot study the tragedy of mass death
without the kind of support they offer.

My longtime friend James Bill has not been directly involved in this project
but has been a source of stimulation and friendship for over twenty-five years.
Through many personal, academic, and political changes we have managed to
remain friends.

My family is a constant source of pleasure and stability. My wife, Gail, is
my most astute critic. Her comments on my writing are always helpful and
inevitably encourage me to clarify my meaning. She also eats my cooking and
supportg my interest in genocide, despite the fact that it can occasionally
intrude upon one's psychological outlook on life. Whenever that happens, she
helps to draw me back to our own reality.

My children, Karen and Mark, are the ultimate reason I wrote this book,
and I dedicate it to them. In studying genocide and mass death, I have found
that the sense of tragedy surrounding the act of genocide is always heightened
when children are involved, and even more so when I think about my own
children. My fervent wish is that all children, including my own, never have
to experience what I write about in this book.

Finally, none of the above bear any responsibility for errors that may occur
in this work; the responsibility is entirely my own.

-xiv-