Teaching the 
Unthinkable
Carol Rittner and John K. Roth, eds.
Rape: Weapon of War and Genocide is a much-needed book that brings method to the teaching of madness. Rape as a weapon of war and genocide is a subject almost beyond comprehension, yet this book manages to define it, examine it, and ultimately bring the reader to a better understanding of its impact, dynamics and implacability. Edited by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth, Rape: Weapon of War and Genocide hangs together seamlessly as a unified work though it consists of separate chapters by some thirteen authors. As in so many of the books they have edited together over the years, Rittner and Roth have brought to fruition a book in which the reader senses the intelligence behind the design and tone of the entire text.
The madness that this book tackles is so widespread and so devastating – on both an individual and a societal level – that it tests our limits of belief, even for those who have already studied the role of rape-as-policy, leaving us wondering if men can really do these things to women. The sad and incontrovertible conclusion is that they can, and they do, and it is horrible. And for all its complexity, the fact that rape can be used as a strategy to accomplish the defeat of an enemy in military conflict or the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such, is best explained by the answer to the question that Rittner poses in her opening chapter: “Are Women Human?” Drawing on an essay of the same name by Catherine A. MacKinnon, Rittner forces us to recognize that what accounts for the phenomenon of male-on-female sexual violence is, at its core, the lack of fully human status accorded the latter by the former.
Rape: Weapon of War and Genocide is, sadly, a necessary resource for university students and teachers, for the general reader seeking a sound and cohesive understanding of a complex topic, and for any student of genocide. Would that such a book, as well done as it is, on such a topic, were not needed.
Carol Rittner and John K. Roth, eds. Rape: Weapon of War and Genocide. St. Paul, Minnesota: Paragon House, 2012.
Review by Michael Dickerman, a member of the adjunct faculty at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, where he teaches courses in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
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