The Dead Do Not Die

May 12, 2014
Partly disguised as travelogues, these two polemics from Swedish author Lindqvist (A History of Bombing) argue that our revulsion at contemporary atrocities disguises an undeserved sense of moral superiority. As he points out, our ancestors largely approved the slaughter of “inferior” races during centuries of European (and American) imperialism, so subsequent genocides from the Holocaust to Rwanda followed naturally. In “Exterminate All the Brutes,” Lindqvist alternates between a bus trip across the Sahara and a painful history of colonial butchery in 19th-century Africa in which the Britons participated with no less enthusiasm than the Germans, Belgians, and French. In the second piece, Lindqvist travels in Australia, once referred to as “Terra Nullius”: Latin for “no one’s land,” but also a region populated by people considered by the Europeans as too subhuman to deserve consideration. Those that abhor colonialism but insist we must not cry over spilt milk will recoil at Australia’s vicious treatment of its aboriginal population. It’s not an easy work to stomach, and even the most jaded readers will squirm at the avalanche of brutality justified by pious rhetoric from such figures as Churchill and Darwin who agreed that nature’s laws doomed “inferior races”. Illus.

June 1, 2014

This single volume actually contains two books, "Exterminate All the Brutes" and Terra Nullius, by prolific author Lindqvist (A History of Bombing; The Skull Measurer's Mistake). Both titles (originally published in Swedish in 1992 and 2002 and in English in 1997 and 2005, respectively) are about the deep and wide impact colonialism has had on native peoples. As with most of Lindqvist's writing, these books are part history, part travelog, part memoir, and part cultural criticism--less a coherent narrative and more a collection of thoughts and vignettes. "Exterminate all the Brutes" asserts that Nazism was simply imperialism and colonialism used against Europeans. The slaughter of native peoples by the European powers, argues Lindqvist, laid the foundation for the Holocaust. Terra Nullius (Latin for "No Man's Land") recounts the horrors visited by the British on what they considered the "lower race" of the Australian Aborigines. The book jacket claims this is the "unabridged text" of "Exterminate," but it is unclear what is different about this edition and why readers would buy this version if they already owned copies of the two books. VERDICT This is definitely not for the lay reader, but for those better versed in colonialism and looking for a unique perspective. Recommended for anyone knowledgeable about colonialism, imperialism, European history, and Australian history.--Jason Martin, Stetson Univ. Lib., DeLand, FL

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