1st Edition
Violence and Lies The Exercise of Power from the Conquest of the Americas to the Climate Crisis
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Power: Violence, Lies and Deception
2. The Conquest of the Americas: Guns, Germs, Steel… and Lies
3. Lies, Deception, and Violence in the Scramble for Africa
4. The Holocaust: Violence, Lies and Deception
5. 9/11 and The War on Terror: Violence, Lies and Deception
6. The Rape of Nanjing
7. Climate Change-Climate Obstruction: Power, violence, lies and deception
8. The Long-Run: Lies, Deception and Violence as Methods of Power
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Lorenzo Posocco is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Subjectivity Research (CFS), University of Copenhagen. He holds a dual PhD in Sociology and Political Science from University College Dublin (UCD) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. He has previously held lecturing and research positions at University College Dublin and Università di Roma Tor Vergata. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge (UK), Princeton University (USA), the University of Graz (Austria), and Yeditepe University (Istanbul, Türkiye).
“Deeply embedded in historical sociology and political history, Lorenzo Posocco’s Violence and Lies reads among the most compelling and transformative books I have read over the last 20 years. Its argument is straightforward, clear and documented with historical detail: most mass crimes throughout modern history have been carried out with the use of lies, deception, denial, disinformation, fake news, as well as violence. In a world where violence and disinformation seem to be constantly on the rise, I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned about the impact of violence and disinformation on our lives and our future.”
Daniele Conversi, Ikerbasque Foundation for Science and the University of the Basque Country
"This is one of the most striking books ever to come my way: it offers an innovative and convincing theory of the role of lies within violence, and illustrates it with marvellously drawn examples—from the Conquest of the Americas to the Holocaust, and from the War on Terror to the Rape of Nanjing."
John A. Hall, McGill University
"Posocco ranges widely over the last five centuries and across several academic disciplines in this insightful study of the links among political domination, political violence, and systemic deception.The result is a new and important strand of political theory, anchored in historical examples."
J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University
