THE HORRORS OF ADANA: REVOLUTION AND VIOLENCE IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

By: Bedross Der Matossian,

Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022, 360 p.

The book examines the 1909 twin massacres that shook the province of Adana, located in the southern Anatolian region of modern-day Turkey, killing more than 20,000 Armenians and 2,000 Muslims. The Horrors of Adana offers one of the first close examinations of these events, analyzing sociopolitical and economic transformations that culminated in a cataclysm of violence. Drawing on primary sources in a dozen languages, this book is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the rumors and emotions, public spheres and humanitarian interventions that together informed this complex event. Ultimately, through consideration of the Adana Massacres in micro-historical detail, “The Horrors of Adana” presents an important macrocosmic understanding of ethnic violence, illuminating how and why ordinary people can become perpetrators.