Book Review: Jane Springer's Genocide and the Fight to End It
This paper reviews Jane Springer's Genocide (2009), tracing the book's argument from the Darfur crisis through the broader history of human rights, the UN Genocide Convention, and the persistent failure of world governments to intervene in ongoing atrocities. The review summarizes Springer's core claims: that genocide is rooted in ideologies of hate, that the international community consistently fails to match its declarations with meaningful action, and that grassroots awareness is essential to stopping the cycle. The paper also reflects on personal action steps the student plans to take — including advocacy, social media outreach, and lobbying — in response to Springer's call for engagement.
- Introduction and Overview of Springer's Genocide: Darfur crisis introduced through Springer's framing
- Historical Context: Human Rights, the Holocaust, and the UN: Enlightenment ideals and post-WWII UN response
- Inaction and the Failure of Political Will: Governments ignore genocide despite UN commitments
- Awareness, Memory, and Prevention: Grassroots awareness as key to prevention
- Hate Ideology as the Root of Genocide: Ethnic and religious hate drives mass atrocities
- Conclusion and Personal Response: Student reflects on personal action steps
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper closely follows the structure of Springer's argument, moving from the specific case of Darfur outward to a global and historical analysis before returning to personal application — mirroring the book's own macro-to-micro movement.
- It integrates direct quotations from the text to anchor analytical claims, demonstrating basic source engagement expected at the introductory undergraduate level.
- The personal response section adds a reflective dimension, translating Springer's call to action into concrete, student-accessible steps such as social media outreach and congressional lobbying.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates summary-and-response structure, a foundational technique in book reviews. The student first faithfully summarizes each major argument in Springer's text, then evaluates its implications and applies them to a real-world context. The use of footnote citations to trace specific claims back to page numbers shows basic source documentation practice.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with Springer's framing of Darfur, then widens to cover the Enlightenment roots of human rights and the post-WWII UN framework. It addresses the central tension in Springer's argument — strong declarations versus weak action — before examining her prescriptions: awareness-raising, memory, and uprooting hate ideology. The conclusion pivots to a first-person reflection on how the student intends to respond. The bibliography is brief but properly formatted.
Introduction and Overview of Springer's Genocide
In Genocide, Jane Springer opens by examining the mass murder of Africans in Darfur by the Janjaweed — the armed Arabic horsemen who served as hired mercenaries of the Sudanese government, paid to exterminate the African population. Springer describes in vivid detail the plight of the African people, their hopelessness, and how the outside world barely seems to notice what is going on, with the media only intermittently covering the genocide in Darfur.1 From there, Springer pulls back from the micro and examines the macro — the history of human rights in the West and where our present regard for human rights comes from — namely, the ideals of the French and American Revolutions: the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness; equality, fraternity, liberty.2 Springer takes note of several defining moments and works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that advocated for equal rights, whether for all people or for women specifically, including Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women.
Historical Context: Human Rights, the Holocaust, and the UN
Once having established this historical context for why we should be troubled by genocide, Springer goes on to describe the Jewish Holocaust of World War II and how the United Nations responded to that catastrophe with its new "crimes against humanity" charge.3 She describes the UN Declaration of Human Rights as essentially a two-hundred-year belated response to Rousseau's charge that "Man is born free — and everywhere he is in chains."4 The Genocide Convention was established thereafter, which Springer regards as a "high point in the history of human rights."5
Springer then jumps back in time to show how genocide has been depicted throughout history, touching on the Armenian genocide, the destruction of Carthage, and other historical cases. She discusses what it means to be a victim of genocide, how to prevent it, and why so little is being done about the genocide in Darfur: "To date, no government or group of governments has adequately confronted the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. There is no 'political will' — no commitment by governments to devote the needed efforts and resources."6 In other words, despite the UN declaration, nothing of any significance is being done to stop the atrocity in Africa. It is as though the world were silently backing the Sudanese government — and indeed, with China supplying weapons to Sudan, that appearance is difficult to dismiss.7
Inaction and the Failure of Political Will
The main argument Springer makes is that in spite of the West's own historical experience of genocide, and its high-minded UN declaration, it still does little to get directly involved in crises like the one in Darfur. Springer notes that Genocide Watch identifies twenty different regions where genocide is occurring, from Chad to Chechnya, and that nothing is being done to address these instances. It is as though the UN were merely paying lip service to the idea of opposing genocide.
Springer argues that prevention is necessary to stop the roots of genocide from developing — and this means rooting out the racist and political ideologies that lead to it. It also means freeing up the necessary forces so that Western troops can be deployed to areas where genocide is occurring. She specifically argues that this means withdrawing soldiers from Iraq and the Middle East so they can assist in Sudan and other parts of the world where genocide is actively happening.8 Springer wants the reading public to understand that although genocide has occurred throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it does not have to continue. Those nations that signed the UN Declaration have a duty and responsibility to stop genocide from recurring. She shows that the central problem is a lack of action on their part and urges readers to get involved by supporting and petitioning their governments to act.
Conclusion and Personal Response
In conclusion, it is important to remember that when hate turns into a dominant ideology, whole groups can suffer. Genocides have occurred throughout history — in World War II, in the Middle East, and across many other regions — and they all share one thing in common: an attitude of hate directed from one group toward another. That attitude has shaped political, social, domestic, and foreign policy. Genocides are part of the human story. However, the fact that genocide is historically common does not mean it should be accepted. Genocide and the hate that fuels it should be rejected by societies that have the power to stop its spread.
Having finished the book and reflected on how I might help counteract acts of genocide in Darfur, the Congo, Syria, and other parts of the world, I believe the best course of action is to spread the word and raise awareness about what is really going on. The more people who know, the more likely it is that positive action will follow. People also feed off one another's positive energy, so by raising awareness, it may happen that I find a kindred spirit who feels the same way, and together we could build something meaningful. I would like to get in touch with Congress and organize people to lobby for a withdrawal from Syria specifically, because getting out of the Middle East seems to me a necessary precondition for focusing resources on ending genocide elsewhere.
I would also like to use social media platforms to disseminate information and get more people involved. A YouTube channel or podcast focused specifically on sharing information about genocide around the world could allow listeners to access reliable information and connect with others. By inviting knowledgeable speakers as guests, such a platform could genuinely raise awareness on a broader scale.
Bibliography
Andersson, Hilary. "China is Fueling War in Darfur." BBC, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7503428.stm
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract, 1762. Bartleby.com.
Springer, Jane. Genocide. Toronto, Ontario: Groundwood Books, 2009.
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