A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide
by Eric Reeves
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eric ReevesEditor: Michael Brassard
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-30
ISBN: 0978043146
Number of pages: 386
Publisher: The Key Publishing House Inc.
Book Reviews of A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide
Book Review: Dispatches from the Foremost Sudan Human Rights Activist
Summary: 3 Stars
Eric Reeves is well-known in Darfur activism circles for his courageous, tenacious website ([...]), where he publishes frequent dispatches on the Darfur genocide. Pulitzer-prize-winning author and anti-genocide activist Samantha Power says that "not a single person in the world has done as much for Darfur as Eric Reeves." For this reason, A Long Day's Dying was a much-anticipated contribution to the literature on the Darfur genocide. In serving as a one-volume compendium of the most important of Reeves' writings during the 2003-2006 period, the book lives up to expectations - it systematically documents the Khartoum regime's depredations and the international community's slow and indecisive response, while also providing a record of Eric Reeves' relentless advocacy over that period. In this sense, it is a must-read for any student of genocide in general and the Darfur conflict in particular.
Reeves is justly prominent as the most dogged advocate of oppressed Sudanese people and as a tenacious adversary of the genocidal Khartoum regime and foot draggers in the international community. The "critical moments" presented in the book reflect Reeves' passion, commitment, and unflagging appeals to the world's conscience for the slow, ineffective response to Khartoum's crimes against humanity and diplomatic intransigence and subterfuge. Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, come in for particularly harsh criticism, as Reeves accuses them of engaging in eloquent diplo-speak and compromising away important gains rather than pushing for quick, meaningful results in terms of disarmament, civilian protection, and humanitarian access.
Some strengths of the book include the following: The introduction (dated January 21, 2007) is succinct and highly informative; it provides a great 18-page overview of key issues with respect to the ongoing Darfur tragedy. The eight colorful, detailed United Nations maps that Reeves provides are quite useful, though one needs a magnifying glass to take full advantage of them. Another strength is that a number of important resource documents, such as United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1706, are included in the appendices, thus adding to the book's usefulness as a reference work on the Darfur genocide.
While the book is important and useful, it does have notable weaknesses. First, it is more useful as a reference work than as a book to be read cover to cover. While I did the latter, it is a tough, long slog, as the "critical moments" tend to be very repetitive in some key details, and the editing is sometimes shaky. Reeves tries to justify this away in the introduction, but the book could easily have been edited in such a manner as to make it more readable and concise. A second readability challenge is that each of the three content chapters after the introduction ("Sudan's killing fields move westward", "Rwanda redux", and Genocide by attrition") are organized chronologically, starting over in each chapter. Given the book's usefulness as a historical archive, it would have been more useful to organize the whole book chronologically and have the chapters organized in consecutive order by time period. A third readability challenge is that virtually all of the analysis in the book is at the macro level, commenting on the broad contours of the genocide and the international response. There is relatively little rich detail of particular cases on the ground or case studies of the responses of particular international actors. This reflects the macro approach of Reeves' website - individual analyses are well-written, convincing, and hard-hitting, but read in a series they become a bit monotonous. This would be a more readable book if the author varied the level of analysis.
Given the fact that A Long Day's Dying is most useful as a historical archive, it is truly unfortunate that the book's short index is quite poor. It is only an index of proper names, so important topics such as "oil" and "peacekeeping" are not covered. And even names that are mentioned multiple times in the book's text (e.g., CARE, Central African Republic, European Union, etc.) are omitted.
In sum, this is an indispensable archival reference for any serious student of the Darfur conflict, whether an activist, humanitarian, or academic. Some of the weaknesses mentioned above are forgivable, given Eric Reeves' apparent desire to get the book into print while it was still not too late to influence debates, and, more important, outcomes. I hope that once the dust clears and there is peace and justice in Sudan, Reeves and his publisher will release a revised edition that completes the story and rectifies some of the weaknesses of the current volume. In any case, this is still an important volume that any serious student of the Darfur tragedy should have close at hand.
Summary of A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide
The main theme of this new book is that the Khartoum regime is committing genocide in Darfur while the international community watches in silence or with mere hand-wringing. Publication of such an important book, at this critical moment in the Darfur genocide, offers to government officials, academics, humanitarian aid groups, human rights organizations, as well as to the broader public an in-depth critical assessment of the current situation in Darfur. It also provides an unsparing assessment of the international community s diplomatic efforts, past and present, to respond to Darfur. Such an assessment comes at a defining moment. The world is watching clearly and yet responding weakly. Action is essential now if we are not to see a further extension of the international failures so conspicuous in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.History Books
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