This is a hybrid book talk by Julien Zarifian, Ph.D, Professor in U.S. History and Civilization at the University of Poitiers, France, and fellow at the Institut Universitaire de France. Dr. Zarifian will present his latest book, The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics, published by Rutgers University Press in 2024.
This book talk is co-hosted by the Armenian Genocide Research Program of the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, and the NAASR / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Bunche Hall, Rm 10383 (10th floor)
Los Angeles, CA 90095
During the first World War, over a million Armenians were killed as Ottoman Turks embarked
on a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing. Scholars have long described these massacres
as genocide, one of Hitler’s prime inspirations for the Holocaust, yet the United States did
not officially recognize the Armenian Genocide until 2021.
The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics is the first book to examine how and why the United States refused to acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide until the early 2020s. Although the American government expressed
sympathy towards the plight of the Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s, historian Julien
Zarifian explores how, from the 1960s, a set of geopolitical and institutional factors soon led
the United States to adopt a policy of genocide non-recognition which it would cling to for
over fifty years, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike. He describes the
forces on each side of this issue: activists from the US Armenian diaspora and their allies,
challenging Cold War statesmen worried about alienating NATO ally Turkey and dealing with
a widespread American reluctance to directly confront the horrors of the past. Drawing from
congressional records, rare newspapers, and interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers,
he reveals how genocide recognition became such a complex, politically sensitive issue.
Julien Zarifian is Professor in U.S. History and Civilization at the University of Poitiers,
France, and fellow at the Institut Universitaire de France. He is the author of two books in
French and has published dozens of academic articles in journals such
as Society and European Journal of American Studies.
To order this book, please visit https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org
Sponsor(s): Armenian Genocide Research Program, The Promise Armenian Institute, UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, NAASR / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues.