141 - Norman Naimark: The History of Genocide

Norman Naimark is Robert & Florence McDonnell Professor of East European History at Stanford University. He is also Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution and the Institute of International Studies. He has worked on a wide array of topics related to the Cold War, genocide, communism, Hitler, Stalin, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Norman talk about the world history of genocide. After discussing just what constitutes genocide, they begin with the most distant reaches of prehistory—neanderthals and beyond—before moving up through biblical times, the Mongol conquest, the crusades, the colonial period, and more modern events. 

Genocide: A World History: https://a.co/d/7o4tG25

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:55 Introduction

05:13 Norman’s Background

16:24 What’s an Archival Historian?

21:12 What is Genocide

35:59 Prehistoric and Biblical Genocide

48:20 Genghis Khan and the Mongolian Genocide

01:08:05 Were the Crusades Genocidal?

01:24:07 The Spanish Colonial Genocide

01:39:02 Race, Economics, and the Settler Genocides

01:48:02 The Genocides of Modernity

01:55:07 The Armenian Genocide

02:04:49 Is There a Genocide in Ukraine?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.