In this sweeping, definitive work, historian David Crowe offers an unflinching account of the long and troubled history of genocide and war crimes. From ancient atrocities to more recent horrors, he traces their disturbing consistency but also the heroic efforts made to break seemingly intractable patterns of violence and retribution.

'Winston Churchill called genocide the crime of crimes and my experience as a witness to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 confirms that definition. Crowe has done an exceptional job of research and writing of the crime of genocide and war crimes, throughout history, with the skill of the academic, the experience of the practitioner, but in the language of the layman. I strongly recommend this book to the academic, the lawyer, the student, the activist and the citizen who must join together to eradicate these crimes that have plagued humanity since antiquity. This book will contribute to the campaign of finally banishing war crimes and genocide to the dustbin of history.' - Senator Roméo Dallaire

'Like no other author, David M. Crowe provides an encyclopedic summation both of humanity's propensity for atrocious evil and of its halting and inadequate search for accountability after the fact - a dramatic story that, as he indicates, is far from over in our own day.' - Samuel Moyn, Author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History

'A stomach-churning account of humanity's insatiable blood-lust" - Times Higher Education