What is it about?
The controversy over these mass deaths in the Ottoman Empire during World War I has lasted for a century. Did the American press exhibit cultural and political bias? Compassion fatigue? A weakness for Twitter-like reports? Scholars now see that the American press performed well in giving a rough draft of history.
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Why is it important?
Malpractice in the press may be easier to understand than competence and good judgment. The compelling and largely accurate accounts of this genocide were made possible by the setting in "Bible Lands." This connection to American faiths helps to explain why reports of other 20th-century genocides struggled to get attention in the American press.
Perspectives
Print culture and libraries were extraordinarily important in preserving the cultural memory of this genocide. Projects that rely on other means of preserving genocide records from around the world may learn something from this.
Thomas C Leonard
University of California, Berkeley
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This page is a summary of: When news is not enough: American media and Armenian deaths, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511497605.014.
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