Time: 12:00 - 4:00pm Venue: Room 313, Third Floor, Law Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road E1 4NS United Kingdom
This event is hosted by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI). Dr Ben Madley, Associate Professor, History Department Interim Chair, American Indian Studies Program University of California, will launch his new book 'An American Genocide: The United State and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873' (Yale). This will be followed by a screening of the 'Canary Effect'.
Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. Madley’s deeply researched new book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (Yale University Press; publication date May 24, 2016; $38.00), is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book.
For directions to the venue, please refer to the map.
This event is free but prior booking is required. Register online via Eventbrite.
For more information on this event, please email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk.
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