Bread from Stones

The Armenian Genocide centenary of 2015 has coincided with significant shifts in the historiography of the causes and consequences of the violence perpetrated against the Ottoman Armenians. A new wave of scholarship has drawn upon a diverse and innovative range of archival resources. It has also developed new critical approaches which connect the fate of the Armenians to broader themes in modern history, not least the nature of violence against civilians in war, imperial collapse and nation-building, and histories of humanitarianism and refugee relief. Focusing on the latter of these themes, the author, K. Watenpaugh, has made an important contribution to this shifting field. By tracing the history of international humanitarian engagements with the Ottoman territories of various kinds from the nineteenth century to the post-Second World War period, Watenpaugh demonstrates that paying attention to this region offers important insights into the development of discourses and practices of modern humanitarianism. At the heart of the book is the response of the under-studied American relief agency, Near East Relief (NER), to the Armenian Genocide and the refugee crisis which followed in its wake in Syria and Lebanon. These regions have been relatively neglected in existing narratives of humanitarianism’s history, especially during the first half of the twentieth century. Conversely, the history of refugees, relief and resettlement has not been fully addressed in histories of the inter-war Middle East. This book plays a significant role in redressing the balance

Agency (philosophy · Ancient history · Archaeology · Armenian · Art · Genocide · Historiography · Literature · Middle East · Narrative · Political science · Refugee · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · World history · Gender Studies · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law · Torture, Ethics, and Law