| View Larger Image | Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda | Paperbackby Roméo Dallaire (Author), Samantha Power (Author)
| List Price: | $17.95 | | Price: | $12.92 | | You Save: | $5.03 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Da Capo Press | | Page Count: | 592 Pages | | Publication Date: | December 20, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 9,742th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780786715107
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
For the first time in the United States comes the tragic and profoundly important story of the legendary Canadian general who "watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect." When Roméo Dallaire was called on to serve as force commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda, he believed that his assignment was to help two warring parties achieve the peace they both wanted. Instead, he was exposed to the most barbarous and chaotic display of civil war and genocide in the past decade, observing in just one hundred days the killings of more than eight hundred thousand Rwandans. With only a few troops, his own ingenuity and courage to direct his efforts, Dallaire rescued thousands, but his call for more support from the world body fell on deaf ears. In Shake Hands with the Devil, General Dallaire recreates the awful history the world community chose to ignore. He also chronicles his own progression from confident Cold Warrior to devastated UN commander, and finally to retired general struggling painfully, and publicly, to overcome posttraumatic stress disorder—the highest-ranking officer ever to share such experiences with readers. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 79 reviews)
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Chilling - important - valuable by Historicus (Pennsylvania USA)  5 Stars
November 27, 2009
A lot has already been said about this book, thus my review will be brief. Dallaire, who was at ground zero for the worst genocide since 1945 and one of the worst in human history, was a man deeply impacted by what he experienced and what he was not allowed to prevent. That impact is evident in his memoir. It is a gripping account that will make the reader sad, angry, and frustrated: a genocide that need not have happened had the world decided to give a s--t. SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL is a work I would strongly recommend, for soldiers, students of international relations, foreign service folks, and anyone who cares about humanity. Kudos to Gen. Dallaire.
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Pultizer Material by Mark Carrera 5 Stars
November 08, 2009
NO other account can beat Dallaire and the Rwanda Genocide, and it should be in every political science classroom!
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Should have been better by TD101 (Tennessee)  2 Stars
May 07, 2009
This is a tragic story that needed to be told. Unfortunately, Dallaire should have used a ghost writer or someone like Mark Bowden to tell it. This reads just like a diary and is so burdened with needless details that the accounts of the genocide get lost in the mix. I found myself skimming whole chapters, and would put the book down for days before picking it up again. I'm capable of reading a 500 page book in 3-4 days, but it took me a month to get through this. If not for the subject matter, I wouldn't have finished it.
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Great book by B. Foster (Riverside, CA) 5 Stars
April 24, 2009
This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I think Dallaire's writing style is under-rated and perhaps un-appreciated. The bulk of the account of his time in Rwanda is written in a documentary, almost overly-efficient style. But I think this adds to the credibilty of a story that is almost beyond belief. The style gives the impression of a very reluctant unwilling story teller who has no choice but to tell it. The first part of the story gives a lot of auto-bigraphical material that at first seemed to be a little self-glorifying. But after reading it the relevance, and even ironies, became clear. The book is extremely well researched as you would expect. I was very appreciative of the accronym glossary near the end of the book. The book was long but I didn't think long enough. I usually read books on the train during my commute. But I had to take this one home to finish.
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What can I say ... by desert gypsy (NJ USA)  4 Stars
July 08, 2008
What can I say about this book... It is not an easy read and it is important to realize that it is written from the point of view of the General Dallaire, the Force Commander for the operation. The writing is simple and straightforward and it essentially covers Dallaire's life and career first with the Canadian armed forces and later as the head of the ill fated United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Dallaire assumes the blame for the numerous failings of UNAMIR while also pointing out that assistance form the UN and from member states was not forthcoming. In a sense, the book makes it clear that since Rwanda has little strategic value to the world, no member nation, other than one or two ex-colonial powers was interested in putting its troops in harms way to prevent the genocide. What is surprising is the fact that the UN and its member nations were acutely aware that the country was headed for an ethnic cleansing and chose to do nothing about it. In the case of the UN, one can't help but feel that the organization was not only sidelined but also manipulated by various Rwandan political parties, ex-colonial powers and UN member states. All in all it makes for an excellent description of the UNAMIR mission as long as one realizes that it only presents the viewpoint of one person
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