The Geometry of Genocide: A Study in Pure Sociology

In The Geometry of Genocide, Bradley Campbell examines mass killing through an innovative sociological framework. Rather than viewing genocide as incomprehensible evil, Campbell reveals it as a form of social control — a reaction to perceived deviance. Using five detailed case studies spanning California's indigenous massacres to the Holocaust, he demonstrates how "social geometry" determines who lives and dies. The short shows that genocide emerges from specific social conditions: when ethnic groups experience changes in status and power (understratification) while maintaining social distance between them. Campbell's theory explains the puzzling observation that many perpetrators simultaneously rescue some victims while killing others, based on their social closeness. Campbell's work offers a powerful analytical tool by placing genocide within broader patterns of human conflict, suggesting that as global cultural connections increase, genocide may gradually decline.