A World History of War Crimes

The greatly expanded and enhanced 2nd edition of A World History of War Crimes provides an authoritative and accessible introduction to the global history of war crimes and the laws of war. Tracing human efforts to limit warfare, from codes of war in antiquity designed to maintain a religiously conceived cosmic order to the gradual use in the modern age of the criminal trial as a means of enforcing universal humanitarian norms, Michael S. Bryant's book is a masterful one-volume account of the subject.
This new edition includes, for the first time:
* Two chapters providing extensive coverage of the Americas, Africa and the Middle East* Strengthened chronological boundaries - a new chapter on the Incas, Aztecs, Mayan, and North American Indian tribes, as well as more material across all regions in ancient times; discussion of contemporary war crimes committed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar and Syria* A historiographical essay to broaden your understanding of the field* An added final chapter focusing on the social, cultural and psychological aspects of the subject
A World History of War Crimes is vital reading for anyone needing to understand the history of war in one of its most significant contexts.

Michael S. Bryant is Professor of History and Legal Studies at Bryant University, USA. He is the author of Eyewitness to Genocide: The Operation Reinhard Death Camp Trials, 1955-1966 (2014), and co-author of Global Legal Traditions: Comparative Law for the 21st Century (2021) and Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' and the Holocaust (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming), amongst others.

List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. The Roots of the Law of War in World History
2. The Law of War in Pre-Columbian America
3. The Law of War in Rome, the Islamic World, and the European Middle Ages
4. Making Law in the Slaughterhouse of the World: Early Modernity & the Law of War
5. The Law of War in 18th and 19th Century Europe
6. Colonialism and the Law of War: The Western Hemisphere
7. Colonialism and the Law of War: Africa and the Middle East
8. The First World War and the Failure of the Law of War
9. The Second World War and the Triumph of the Law of War
10. Into the 21st Century: War Crimes & their Treatment since the Second World War
11. The Causes of War Crimes: Theoretical Perspectives
Conclusion: The Future of the Law of War
Notes
Bibliography
Index