The Khmer Rouge revolution turned Cambodia into grisly killing fields, as the Pol Pot regime murdered or starved to death a million and a half of Cambodia's eight million inhabitants. This book - the first comprehensive study of the Pol Pot regime - describes the violent origins, social context, and course of the revolution, providing a new answer to the question of why a group of Cambodian intellectuals imposed genocide on their own country.

About the Author

Ben Kiernan is the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History, professor of international and area studies, and the founding director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University (www.yale.edu/gsp). His other books include Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur and How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930-1975, published by Yale University Press.

Reviews

"Deeply detailed, meticulously reported... Important and valuable." Nation "In this authoritative work, Ben Kiernan... explores the reasons why Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge revolution became a Cambodian nightmare." Richard Gough, Times Higher Education Supplement "Perhaps the most complete account of Pol Pot's terror and the closest to Cambodian sources." Economist "One of the most important contributions to the subject so far." R. B. Smith, Asian Affairs "Kiernan, the leading authority on modern Cambodia, meticulously examines Pol Pot's killing machine and clears up many misconceptions found in earlier studies... An important book for students of genocide as well as scholars of Southeast Asia." Library Journal "A detailed and chilling history." Asiaweek "The most detailed history to date of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime... This book will certainly be the benchmark against which all future research on the Khmer Rouge must be measured. Very highly recommended." Choice"