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Torture and Democracy
This is the most comprehensive, and most comprehensively chilling, study of modern torture yet written. Darius Rejali, one of the world's leading experts on torture, takes the reader from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of Abu Ghraib, from slavery and the electric chair to electrotorture in American inner cities, and from French and British colonial prison cells and the Spanish-American War to the fields of Vietnam, the wars of the Middle East, and the new democracies of Latin America and Europe.
As Rejali traces the development and application of one torture technique after another in these settings, he reaches startling conclusions. As the twentieth century progressed, he argues, democracies not only tortured, but set the international pace for torture. Dictatorships may have tortured more, and more indiscriminately, but the United States, Britain, and France pioneered and exported techniques that have become the lingua franca of modern methods that leave no marks. Under the watchful eyes of reporters and human rights activists, low-level authorities in the world's oldest democracies were the first to learn that to scar a victim was to advertise iniquity and invite scandal. Long before the CIA even existed, police and soldiers turned instead to "clean" techniques, such as torture by electricity, ice, water, noise, drugs, and stress positions. As democracy and human rights spread after World War II, so too did these methods.
Rejali makes this troubling case in fluid, arresting prose and on the basis of unprecedented research--conducted in multiple languages and on several continents--begun years before most of us had ever heard of Osama bin Laden or Abu Ghraib. The author of a major study of Iranian torture, Rejali also tackles the controversial question of whether torture really works, answering the new apologists for torture point by point. A brave and disturbing book, this is the benchmark against which all future studies of modern torture will be measured.
As Rejali traces the development and application of one torture technique after another in these settings, he reaches startling conclusions. As the twentieth century progressed, he argues, democracies not only tortured, but set the international pace for torture. Dictatorships may have tortured more, and more indiscriminately, but the United States, Britain, and France pioneered and exported techniques that have become the lingua franca of modern methods that leave no marks. Under the watchful eyes of reporters and human rights activists, low-level authorities in the world's oldest democracies were the first to learn that to scar a victim was to advertise iniquity and invite scandal. Long before the CIA even existed, police and soldiers turned instead to "clean" techniques, such as torture by electricity, ice, water, noise, drugs, and stress positions. As democracy and human rights spread after World War II, so too did these methods.
Rejali makes this troubling case in fluid, arresting prose and on the basis of unprecedented research--conducted in multiple languages and on several continents--begun years before most of us had ever heard of Osama bin Laden or Abu Ghraib. The author of a major study of Iranian torture, Rejali also tackles the controversial question of whether torture really works, answering the new apologists for torture point by point. A brave and disturbing book, this is the benchmark against which all future studies of modern torture will be measured.
880 pages, Hardcover
First published November 12, 2007
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December 17, 2009
I recently used this book as the main research text for a paper I wrote on the portrayal of torture in American film and television post-9/11. After reading it, I can only be grateful that someone like Darius Rejali exists, and that he has taken the time to write about a dark and grisly subject with such detail and insight, and ultimately, so much humility and compassion. I also kind of wished I had gone to Reed College so I could have had Dr. Rejali as a professor.
Rejali starts the book by describing his own youth in Iran under the Shah, where torture was "a familiar event of modern life," not something that was "logically incompatible with telephones, central heating, weddings, elections." After reading Rejali's book, you will come away with a sense that torture is everywhere in the modern world...but so is resistance to it.
This book is an encyclopedia of torture, and particularly, of what Rejali labels "clean torture," techniques that do not leave obvious scarring or marks. Rejali focuses on these techniques--many of which will sound familiar to anyone to anyone who lived through the Bush years--because they have come to be used extensively by states that consider themselves democracies.
The book is divided into three parts: an introductory section (Intro and Chapters 1-2) that lays out the framework for the rest of the book; a detailed examination of the world's many types of clean torture, their origins and spread around the globe (Chapters 3-19) and an analytic section called Politics and Memory (Chapter 20-24). The middle section is useful as a reference text, but the final five chapters, particularly "Does Torture Work?" and "What the Apologists Say" are the real gold mine of the book.
Using examples from ancient Greece to the War on Terror, pulling together documentation from dozens of countries in at least 15 different languages, Rejali painstakingly and thoroughly shreds the idea that torture is an effective method of gathering reliable intelligence. In fact, using detailed case studies from the Inquisition to the Battle of Algiers, he argues that it is perhaps the worst available method for gathering accurate intelligence quickly--sometimes no more statistically accurate than flipping a coin. It is, however, an excellent method for gathering false confessions and denunciations, and quite effective as a weapon of terror.
The corollary to this argument is that resistance to torture is vastly more prevalent than the US government, and most of popular culture, would have us believe. In case after case of war, occupation and internal repression, Rejali finds bright sparks of truly amazing resistance. The end result is that, despite looking long and deeply into the darkest wells of human cruelty, one finishes the book feeling profoundly hopeful about our collective capacity to survive, and defeat, violence.
The book is exhaustively researched and documented (250 pages of endnotes!) but never feels dry. Rejali writes with incredible respect and almost reverence for the pain he is documenting, never forgetting that behind every anecdote and statistic are real people who suffered for who they were and what they believed. He is less like a clinician than an art restorer: painstakingly wiping away layers of dirt and grime (which in this case are repression and historical amnesia) assembling scattered fragments into something meaningful and coherent with intense care and attention to detail. What's revealed after his work is done may not be beautiful, but it's truthful, and worth looking at.
And, as a bonus: the one country that Rejali credits with inventing something new in the world of modern torture? Israel.
Rejali starts the book by describing his own youth in Iran under the Shah, where torture was "a familiar event of modern life," not something that was "logically incompatible with telephones, central heating, weddings, elections." After reading Rejali's book, you will come away with a sense that torture is everywhere in the modern world...but so is resistance to it.
This book is an encyclopedia of torture, and particularly, of what Rejali labels "clean torture," techniques that do not leave obvious scarring or marks. Rejali focuses on these techniques--many of which will sound familiar to anyone to anyone who lived through the Bush years--because they have come to be used extensively by states that consider themselves democracies.
The book is divided into three parts: an introductory section (Intro and Chapters 1-2) that lays out the framework for the rest of the book; a detailed examination of the world's many types of clean torture, their origins and spread around the globe (Chapters 3-19) and an analytic section called Politics and Memory (Chapter 20-24). The middle section is useful as a reference text, but the final five chapters, particularly "Does Torture Work?" and "What the Apologists Say" are the real gold mine of the book.
Using examples from ancient Greece to the War on Terror, pulling together documentation from dozens of countries in at least 15 different languages, Rejali painstakingly and thoroughly shreds the idea that torture is an effective method of gathering reliable intelligence. In fact, using detailed case studies from the Inquisition to the Battle of Algiers, he argues that it is perhaps the worst available method for gathering accurate intelligence quickly--sometimes no more statistically accurate than flipping a coin. It is, however, an excellent method for gathering false confessions and denunciations, and quite effective as a weapon of terror.
The corollary to this argument is that resistance to torture is vastly more prevalent than the US government, and most of popular culture, would have us believe. In case after case of war, occupation and internal repression, Rejali finds bright sparks of truly amazing resistance. The end result is that, despite looking long and deeply into the darkest wells of human cruelty, one finishes the book feeling profoundly hopeful about our collective capacity to survive, and defeat, violence.
The book is exhaustively researched and documented (250 pages of endnotes!) but never feels dry. Rejali writes with incredible respect and almost reverence for the pain he is documenting, never forgetting that behind every anecdote and statistic are real people who suffered for who they were and what they believed. He is less like a clinician than an art restorer: painstakingly wiping away layers of dirt and grime (which in this case are repression and historical amnesia) assembling scattered fragments into something meaningful and coherent with intense care and attention to detail. What's revealed after his work is done may not be beautiful, but it's truthful, and worth looking at.
And, as a bonus: the one country that Rejali credits with inventing something new in the world of modern torture? Israel.
March 12, 2019
With „Torture and Democracy“ Darius Rejali provides a standard work on modern torture with a clear focus on non-invasive torture by democratic governments.
The author provides a very thoroughly researched and comprehensive book on torture by modern governments, but does not stop there. Instead of focusing on the act of torture he tries to explain the circumstances and framework in which it happens. Thus he starts out his monumental task by discussing the variations of torture according to national or organizational variations and also the questions how torture and democracy are able to co-exist which inevitably leads to practical argument, whether it works or not. Having discussed definitions of torture Rejali explains several models of how torture is employed and justified by governments. This again sets his focus, as the scope of modern democratic states results in a focus of torture to gain information or confessions from the victims or to terrorize them into obedience but is hardly used as punishment or for religious reasons as it was in earlier times. This again means certain methods are stricken from Rejali’s scope, as it was useless to discuss methods not used since the Inquisition when addressing torture in modern democratic states.
In the second part of the book the author addresses the individual methods of torture. He groups torture methods into different groups and describes the development of the techniques over time by different actors as well as circumstances and objectives of its use. Since the Author especially focuses on democratic states, which do not seek public attention of their torture stealth techniques of torture are given more attention than methods leaving distinct marks and damages.
Again putting the individual actions and methods of torture into context, Rejali traces the development of stealth torture and its demands as well the discussion of its effectiveness in part five. Here he provides not only compelling arguments of the ineffectiveness of torture but also addresses the arguments apologists of torture bring forward. Trying to explain why democratic governments still resort to torture despite earlier evidence of its results, Rejali discusses various reasons for this as well as the public perception of torture. The volume is rounded out with several informative appendices as well as voluminous notes on the research of the text, a selected bibliography and a glossar for quick usage of the volume.
This is likely a standard work on modern torture as the author not only discusses torture as such but also addresses key moral and political questions surrounding it, concerning the discussion on necessity, effectiveness and public reaction. This elevates this volume above other works, which only describe methods or bristle with moral indignation whereas Rejali sticks to a firm, but also clear and calm rejection of torture as immoral as well as unnecessary.
This volume is hard to read through and sometimes too graphic for the average reader but has important content and provides the average citizen with much insight and clear arguments to follow a public discussion still much relevant, as torture is still practiced around the world as well by Western democratic governments.
The author provides a very thoroughly researched and comprehensive book on torture by modern governments, but does not stop there. Instead of focusing on the act of torture he tries to explain the circumstances and framework in which it happens. Thus he starts out his monumental task by discussing the variations of torture according to national or organizational variations and also the questions how torture and democracy are able to co-exist which inevitably leads to practical argument, whether it works or not. Having discussed definitions of torture Rejali explains several models of how torture is employed and justified by governments. This again sets his focus, as the scope of modern democratic states results in a focus of torture to gain information or confessions from the victims or to terrorize them into obedience but is hardly used as punishment or for religious reasons as it was in earlier times. This again means certain methods are stricken from Rejali’s scope, as it was useless to discuss methods not used since the Inquisition when addressing torture in modern democratic states.
In the second part of the book the author addresses the individual methods of torture. He groups torture methods into different groups and describes the development of the techniques over time by different actors as well as circumstances and objectives of its use. Since the Author especially focuses on democratic states, which do not seek public attention of their torture stealth techniques of torture are given more attention than methods leaving distinct marks and damages.
Again putting the individual actions and methods of torture into context, Rejali traces the development of stealth torture and its demands as well the discussion of its effectiveness in part five. Here he provides not only compelling arguments of the ineffectiveness of torture but also addresses the arguments apologists of torture bring forward. Trying to explain why democratic governments still resort to torture despite earlier evidence of its results, Rejali discusses various reasons for this as well as the public perception of torture. The volume is rounded out with several informative appendices as well as voluminous notes on the research of the text, a selected bibliography and a glossar for quick usage of the volume.
This is likely a standard work on modern torture as the author not only discusses torture as such but also addresses key moral and political questions surrounding it, concerning the discussion on necessity, effectiveness and public reaction. This elevates this volume above other works, which only describe methods or bristle with moral indignation whereas Rejali sticks to a firm, but also clear and calm rejection of torture as immoral as well as unnecessary.
This volume is hard to read through and sometimes too graphic for the average reader but has important content and provides the average citizen with much insight and clear arguments to follow a public discussion still much relevant, as torture is still practiced around the world as well by Western democratic governments.
March 23, 2015
I am temporarily letting this go to do a history of why women are where they are in regard to sexual rights and experience. Jan 2011
from the library c2007 there is a newer edition
author is prof at Reed College
thorough
Table of Contents c2007
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Historical Claims
Puzzles and Cautions
The Priority of Public Monitoring
Variations among States
Variations within States
National Styles of Stealth Torture
Torture and Democracy
Does Torture Work?
Who Cares?
I Torture and Democracy
Modern Torture and Its Observers
Defining Torture
Monitoring Torture
Torture and Democracy
The National Security Model
The Juridical Model
The Civic Discipline Model
Hell Is in the Details
II Remembering Stalinism and Nazism
Introduction
Lights, Heat, and Sweat
Sweating and Stealth in America
British Psychological Techniques
Interrogation Elsewhere in Europe
Sweating and Stealth in Russia
The Spread of the Russian Style
Remembering Pavlov
Whips and Water
Labussiere's List
Documenting Nazi Torture
Torture in Germany
Torture in Nazi-Occupied Europe
Remembering the War
Bathtubs
Masuy's Bathtub
Marty's Magneto
The French Gestapo and Electric Torture
The Decline of Sweating and Stealth
The German Gestapo and Modern Torture
Remembering Nuremberg
The Search for Electric Torture
III A History of Electric Stealth
Shock
The AC/DC Controversy and the Electric Chair
The Mystery of Electric Death
Early Police Devices
The Mystery of Shock
Early Medical Devices
Transmitting Shock
Later Medical Devices
Remembering the Animals
Magnetos
What Is a Magneto?
Indochina, 1931
Out of Indochina
Korea, 1931
Out of Korea
The Lost History of the Magneto
French and British Electrotorture after World War II
The Colonial Police and Wuillaume's List
The Triumph of the Gegene
Algeria, 1960
Remembering the Gestapo
Currents
South Vietnamese Torture
Vietnam, 1968
Bell Telephone Hour
Out of Vietnam Again
Variation within the French Style
Cattle Prods
The Electric Cornucopia
Remembering Vietnam
Singing the World Electric
When Electrotorture Was New
Explaining Clean Electrotorture
Crafting Electrotorture
Surging Forward
The Americas
Middle East and North Africa
Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Europe and Central Asia
Explaining the Surge
Remembering the Cold War
Prods, Tasers, and Stun Guns
Electric Utopia
Electric-Free Protest
Stun Technology
Covering America
Remembering Eutopia
Stun City
Magneto Torture in Chicago
Stun and Torture
Tasers and Torture
Burning Issues
Stun and Democracy
But No One Died
Civic Shock
Welcome to Stun City
IV Other Stealth Traditions
Introduction
Sticks and Bones
269 (10)
Clean Whipping
269 (2)
Paddles
Beathing Feet
Remembering Slaves and Sailors
277 (2)
Water, Sleep, and Spice
Pumping
280 (1)
Choking
Showers and Ice
Salt and Spice
Deprivation of Sleep
Remembering the Inquisition
Stress and Duress
294 (22)
Great and Lesser Stress Traditions
295 (1)
British Stress Tortures
French Stress Tortures
301 (5)
American Stress Tortures
306 (5)
Authoritarian Adaptations
Remembering the Eighteenth Century
314 (2)
Forced Standing and Other Positions
316 (18)
Old Users after the War
Positional Tortures in the Communist World
322 (2)
Positional Tortures in the Non-Communist World
324 (5)
The Universal Distributor Hypothesis Revisited
Remembering the Hooded Men
Fists and Exercises
334 (13)
Clean Beating
Adapting ``the Necktie''
Exhaustion Exercises
342 (3)
Remembering the Grunts and the Cops
Old and New Restraints
Bucking (the Parrot's Perch)
347 (2)
The Crapaudine
Standing Handcuffs
Sweatboxes
351 (2)
Adapting Old Restraints
The Shabeh
354 (3)
Remembering the Allied POWs
Noise
Low-Technology Noise
360 (3)
High-Technology Noise
363 (5)
The CIA and Sensory Deprivation Boxes
Beyond the Laboratory
Principles and Guinea Pigs
Remembering Evil
384 (1)
Drugs and Doctors
385 (18)
Police and Drugs
The CIA and Drugs
The Decline of Pharmacological Torture
Soviet Pharmacological Torture
392 (2)
Communist Psychoprisons
394 (3)
Lines of Defense
Remembering the Prison Doctors
V Politics and Memory
Supply and Demand for Clean Torture
405 (41)
Historical Claims
The Priority of Public Monitoring
409 (5)
Variations among and within States
National Styles of Stealth Torture
)
The Strength of Low Technology
423 (3)
The Power of Whispers
426 (8)
Why Styles Change
434 (5)
Disciplinary Interventions
The Demand for Torture
Does Torture Work?
446 (34)
Can Torture Be Scientific?
447 (3)
Can Torture Be Restrained?
450 (3)
Does Technology Help?
Can Torture Be Professionally Conducted?
Works Better Than What?
458 (2)
Is Anything Better Than Nothing?
460 (3)
How Well Do Interrogators Spot the Truth?
How Well Do Cooperative Prisoners Remember?
How Good Is the Intelligence Overall?
Even When Time Is Short?
474 (4)
Remembering the Questions
478 (2)
What the Apologists Say
480 (39)
Remembering the Battle of Algiers
481 (1)
Information in the Battle of Algiers
French Interrogation Units
485 (2)
Coerced Information in the Algerian War
487 (5)
Saving Innocents, Losing Wars
492 (1)
Gestapo Stories
493 (2)
Stories from the Resistance
)
CIA Stories
The Interrogation of Al Qaeda
503 (5)
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
508 (3)
Afghanistan
511 (2)
Testimonial Literature from Other Conflicts
513 (5)
Remembering Abu Ghraib
518 (1)
Why Governments Don't Learn
519 (18)
How Knowledge Does Not Accumulate
)
How Knowledge Is Not Analyzed
)
How Torture Warrants Might Help
523 (3)
Regulating Torture
526 (3)
Variations in Regulative Failure
529 (3)
Stealth and the Regulation of Torture
532 (1)
How Knowledge Does Not Matter
533 (2)
Remembering the Soldiers
The Great Age of Torture in Modern Memory
The Great Rift
538 (2)
The Architecture of Amnesia
540 (2)
The Designs of Genius
542 (1)
Demons in the City
543 (2)
Algerian Souvenirs
545 (5)
Caring for the Memories
Appendixes
A A List of Clean Tortures
553 (4)
B Issues of Method
557 (9)
C Organization and Explanations
566 (15)
D A Note on Sources for American Torture during the Vietnam War
581 (12)
Notes 593 (188)
Selected Bibliography 781 (38)
Index 819
from the library c2007 there is a newer edition
author is prof at Reed College
thorough
Table of Contents c2007
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Historical Claims
Puzzles and Cautions
The Priority of Public Monitoring
Variations among States
Variations within States
National Styles of Stealth Torture
Torture and Democracy
Does Torture Work?
Who Cares?
I Torture and Democracy
Modern Torture and Its Observers
Defining Torture
Monitoring Torture
Torture and Democracy
The National Security Model
The Juridical Model
The Civic Discipline Model
Hell Is in the Details
II Remembering Stalinism and Nazism
Introduction
Lights, Heat, and Sweat
Sweating and Stealth in America
British Psychological Techniques
Interrogation Elsewhere in Europe
Sweating and Stealth in Russia
The Spread of the Russian Style
Remembering Pavlov
Whips and Water
Labussiere's List
Documenting Nazi Torture
Torture in Germany
Torture in Nazi-Occupied Europe
Remembering the War
Bathtubs
Masuy's Bathtub
Marty's Magneto
The French Gestapo and Electric Torture
The Decline of Sweating and Stealth
The German Gestapo and Modern Torture
Remembering Nuremberg
The Search for Electric Torture
III A History of Electric Stealth
Shock
The AC/DC Controversy and the Electric Chair
The Mystery of Electric Death
Early Police Devices
The Mystery of Shock
Early Medical Devices
Transmitting Shock
Later Medical Devices
Remembering the Animals
Magnetos
What Is a Magneto?
Indochina, 1931
Out of Indochina
Korea, 1931
Out of Korea
The Lost History of the Magneto
French and British Electrotorture after World War II
The Colonial Police and Wuillaume's List
The Triumph of the Gegene
Algeria, 1960
Remembering the Gestapo
Currents
South Vietnamese Torture
Vietnam, 1968
Bell Telephone Hour
Out of Vietnam Again
Variation within the French Style
Cattle Prods
The Electric Cornucopia
Remembering Vietnam
Singing the World Electric
When Electrotorture Was New
Explaining Clean Electrotorture
Crafting Electrotorture
Surging Forward
The Americas
Middle East and North Africa
Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Europe and Central Asia
Explaining the Surge
Remembering the Cold War
Prods, Tasers, and Stun Guns
Electric Utopia
Electric-Free Protest
Stun Technology
Covering America
Remembering Eutopia
Stun City
Magneto Torture in Chicago
Stun and Torture
Tasers and Torture
Burning Issues
Stun and Democracy
But No One Died
Civic Shock
Welcome to Stun City
IV Other Stealth Traditions
Introduction
Sticks and Bones
269 (10)
Clean Whipping
269 (2)
Paddles
Beathing Feet
Remembering Slaves and Sailors
277 (2)
Water, Sleep, and Spice
Pumping
280 (1)
Choking
Showers and Ice
Salt and Spice
Deprivation of Sleep
Remembering the Inquisition
Stress and Duress
294 (22)
Great and Lesser Stress Traditions
295 (1)
British Stress Tortures
French Stress Tortures
301 (5)
American Stress Tortures
306 (5)
Authoritarian Adaptations
Remembering the Eighteenth Century
314 (2)
Forced Standing and Other Positions
316 (18)
Old Users after the War
Positional Tortures in the Communist World
322 (2)
Positional Tortures in the Non-Communist World
324 (5)
The Universal Distributor Hypothesis Revisited
Remembering the Hooded Men
Fists and Exercises
334 (13)
Clean Beating
Adapting ``the Necktie''
Exhaustion Exercises
342 (3)
Remembering the Grunts and the Cops
Old and New Restraints
Bucking (the Parrot's Perch)
347 (2)
The Crapaudine
Standing Handcuffs
Sweatboxes
351 (2)
Adapting Old Restraints
The Shabeh
354 (3)
Remembering the Allied POWs
Noise
Low-Technology Noise
360 (3)
High-Technology Noise
363 (5)
The CIA and Sensory Deprivation Boxes
Beyond the Laboratory
Principles and Guinea Pigs
Remembering Evil
384 (1)
Drugs and Doctors
385 (18)
Police and Drugs
The CIA and Drugs
The Decline of Pharmacological Torture
Soviet Pharmacological Torture
392 (2)
Communist Psychoprisons
394 (3)
Lines of Defense
Remembering the Prison Doctors
V Politics and Memory
Supply and Demand for Clean Torture
405 (41)
Historical Claims
The Priority of Public Monitoring
409 (5)
Variations among and within States
National Styles of Stealth Torture
)
The Strength of Low Technology
423 (3)
The Power of Whispers
426 (8)
Why Styles Change
434 (5)
Disciplinary Interventions
The Demand for Torture
Does Torture Work?
446 (34)
Can Torture Be Scientific?
447 (3)
Can Torture Be Restrained?
450 (3)
Does Technology Help?
Can Torture Be Professionally Conducted?
Works Better Than What?
458 (2)
Is Anything Better Than Nothing?
460 (3)
How Well Do Interrogators Spot the Truth?
How Well Do Cooperative Prisoners Remember?
How Good Is the Intelligence Overall?
Even When Time Is Short?
474 (4)
Remembering the Questions
478 (2)
What the Apologists Say
480 (39)
Remembering the Battle of Algiers
481 (1)
Information in the Battle of Algiers
French Interrogation Units
485 (2)
Coerced Information in the Algerian War
487 (5)
Saving Innocents, Losing Wars
492 (1)
Gestapo Stories
493 (2)
Stories from the Resistance
)
CIA Stories
The Interrogation of Al Qaeda
503 (5)
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
508 (3)
Afghanistan
511 (2)
Testimonial Literature from Other Conflicts
513 (5)
Remembering Abu Ghraib
518 (1)
Why Governments Don't Learn
519 (18)
How Knowledge Does Not Accumulate
)
How Knowledge Is Not Analyzed
)
How Torture Warrants Might Help
523 (3)
Regulating Torture
526 (3)
Variations in Regulative Failure
529 (3)
Stealth and the Regulation of Torture
532 (1)
How Knowledge Does Not Matter
533 (2)
Remembering the Soldiers
The Great Age of Torture in Modern Memory
The Great Rift
538 (2)
The Architecture of Amnesia
540 (2)
The Designs of Genius
542 (1)
Demons in the City
543 (2)
Algerian Souvenirs
545 (5)
Caring for the Memories
Appendixes
A A List of Clean Tortures
553 (4)
B Issues of Method
557 (9)
C Organization and Explanations
566 (15)
D A Note on Sources for American Torture during the Vietnam War
581 (12)
Notes 593 (188)
Selected Bibliography 781 (38)
Index 819
November 2, 2020
This is a comprehensive tome on torture in democratic states in the modern period. It is painstakingly and rigorously sourced at every turn. It is a very enlightening work and should be read by every democratic citizen.
On that note, the author states that the work is meant for the typical educated reader. I might lightly object here that it comes across as a very academic work and that it will very possibly bore even an educated reader because of its repetition. This repetition is necessary, as his goal is to document torture and its genesis in democracies in modernity as thoroughly as is possible, which ends up making his case stronger, but may make some readers eyes glaze over after the twentieth time he itemizes a particular torture in a slightly different context or a slight variation of a particular subtype of torture. It aims to be an encyclopedic
Account of its subject matter, which it succeeds in, but this very likely will put certain people off.
As for the arguments he makes in the book, most of them are well argued and the author deals quite well with counter arguments, dismantling them piece by piece with evidence and logic. However, there were a few times that I found his arguments a bit soft and hole filled, though these are much more the exception to the rule. My only other criticism of the work is that there is repetition of certain arguments that seemed unnecessary, as the second or third time it was brought up it was simply restating the same arguments with different words, though this isn’t a major issue. It probably could have saved about thirty or forty pages of the book, but I could also see why he may have chosen to keep them in.
All in all a fantastic work and highly recommended.
On that note, the author states that the work is meant for the typical educated reader. I might lightly object here that it comes across as a very academic work and that it will very possibly bore even an educated reader because of its repetition. This repetition is necessary, as his goal is to document torture and its genesis in democracies in modernity as thoroughly as is possible, which ends up making his case stronger, but may make some readers eyes glaze over after the twentieth time he itemizes a particular torture in a slightly different context or a slight variation of a particular subtype of torture. It aims to be an encyclopedic
Account of its subject matter, which it succeeds in, but this very likely will put certain people off.
As for the arguments he makes in the book, most of them are well argued and the author deals quite well with counter arguments, dismantling them piece by piece with evidence and logic. However, there were a few times that I found his arguments a bit soft and hole filled, though these are much more the exception to the rule. My only other criticism of the work is that there is repetition of certain arguments that seemed unnecessary, as the second or third time it was brought up it was simply restating the same arguments with different words, though this isn’t a major issue. It probably could have saved about thirty or forty pages of the book, but I could also see why he may have chosen to keep them in.
All in all a fantastic work and highly recommended.
April 6, 2019
Sometimes you come across such an eye-opening book that it rattles your world view. Torture and Democracy is that kind of book.
I consider myself a person who knows a lot about totalitarianism, and thus coercion and terror. I started reading the Gestapo chapters for my book research, but the sections on recent decades blew me away. The stealthy ways of inflicting pain are democratic inventions. For example: how widespread torture was as a method of standard criminal investigation. I had no idea.
Something I've tried to address with fictional means: the role of the torturers. That theme is an underlying current of Torture and Democracy. Most torturers aren't sadistic monsters but ordinary people.
Rejali's passages which describe the psychology and physiology of pain, also address the question: does torture work? Everyone should read this book. Torture is far from extinct, unfortunately.
I consider myself a person who knows a lot about totalitarianism, and thus coercion and terror. I started reading the Gestapo chapters for my book research, but the sections on recent decades blew me away. The stealthy ways of inflicting pain are democratic inventions. For example: how widespread torture was as a method of standard criminal investigation. I had no idea.
Something I've tried to address with fictional means: the role of the torturers. That theme is an underlying current of Torture and Democracy. Most torturers aren't sadistic monsters but ordinary people.
Rejali's passages which describe the psychology and physiology of pain, also address the question: does torture work? Everyone should read this book. Torture is far from extinct, unfortunately.
September 18, 2011
Torture, or inflicting severe physical or mental pain and suffering on a person, is older than civilization. It has been used for enforcing the social hierarchy, for example, between the slaves and the free citizens in ancient Greece or in the antebellum American South. It has been used for punishment, for example, of runaway slaves. It has been used for extracting confessions in judicial systems that valued them too much, whether late medieval and Renaissance Inquisition, the NKVD during Stalin's Great Terror, or the contemporary Japanese judiciary. Torture is not compatible with liberalism, since a basic human liberty is not to be subjected to torture; so, says Rejali, when liberal states engage in torture, they hypocritically prefer "clean" techniques: beatings that do not leave scars, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, painful postures, noise, drugs, and so on. A runaway slave in the antebellum American South could point at his scars as proof that he had been tortured; a person subjected to sleep deprivation or electric shocks only has his word, which may or may not be believed. Even states that are not liberal democracies now prefer "clean" torture if they care about their international image. The first part of the book is a history of these techniques, not only in liberal democracies but also in the South American military dictatorships of the 1970s, and in Brezhnev-era Soviet psychoprisons.
The second part has a chapter asking whether torture can be used to extract useful information from a suspected criminal, rebel or terrorist. The answer, says Rejali, is: No. Pain is one of the body's self-monitoring systems; damaging the body could damage the pain circuit, so inflicting more damage may not necessarily make the torturee experience more pain. If he hasn't talked so far, torturing him further may not make him talk. If the torturee talks, who knows whether he is telling the truth or telling lies to stop the pain? In 2001, an al-Qaeda fighter was captured in Afghanistan and handed over to Egypt, where he claimed he was tortured; under interrogation he said that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had provided al-Qaeda with training in chemical and biological weapons; U.S. President George W. Bush cited his confession in a 2002 speech. As we all know, this turned out to be untrue. An Englishwoman in Pinochet-era Chile broke down under electric shocks and gave the names of nuns and priests who had sheltered her; the torturers did not believe her and continued shocking her. After enough sleep deprivation, the torturee himself may not distinguish the truth from lies; enough neurological damage may cause the memory to disappear altogether, which is what happened to Princess Diana's bodyguard, whose head injury in the car accident made him not remember it. There is folklore that torture was effective in the Algerian War, in the Vietnam War and in the Intifada; Rejali cites studies that prove that this is not so. The only way for the police or an army of occupation to get information is to win public trust or to use a network of informers. After British-trained Czech Resistance fighters assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis interrogated and tortured a large number of people but only got false leads until another Resistance fighter informed on his comrades. Unfortunately, even American military interrogators believe the folklore, reinforced by such cultural artifacts as the TV show "24". The show's producers, who have no military or intelligence background, have the good guys torture the bad guys as a dramatic device, but American interrogators in Iraq, confronted with a situation they didn't anticipate, turned to the show for ideas.
The second part has a chapter asking whether torture can be used to extract useful information from a suspected criminal, rebel or terrorist. The answer, says Rejali, is: No. Pain is one of the body's self-monitoring systems; damaging the body could damage the pain circuit, so inflicting more damage may not necessarily make the torturee experience more pain. If he hasn't talked so far, torturing him further may not make him talk. If the torturee talks, who knows whether he is telling the truth or telling lies to stop the pain? In 2001, an al-Qaeda fighter was captured in Afghanistan and handed over to Egypt, where he claimed he was tortured; under interrogation he said that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had provided al-Qaeda with training in chemical and biological weapons; U.S. President George W. Bush cited his confession in a 2002 speech. As we all know, this turned out to be untrue. An Englishwoman in Pinochet-era Chile broke down under electric shocks and gave the names of nuns and priests who had sheltered her; the torturers did not believe her and continued shocking her. After enough sleep deprivation, the torturee himself may not distinguish the truth from lies; enough neurological damage may cause the memory to disappear altogether, which is what happened to Princess Diana's bodyguard, whose head injury in the car accident made him not remember it. There is folklore that torture was effective in the Algerian War, in the Vietnam War and in the Intifada; Rejali cites studies that prove that this is not so. The only way for the police or an army of occupation to get information is to win public trust or to use a network of informers. After British-trained Czech Resistance fighters assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis interrogated and tortured a large number of people but only got false leads until another Resistance fighter informed on his comrades. Unfortunately, even American military interrogators believe the folklore, reinforced by such cultural artifacts as the TV show "24". The show's producers, who have no military or intelligence background, have the good guys torture the bad guys as a dramatic device, but American interrogators in Iraq, confronted with a situation they didn't anticipate, turned to the show for ideas.
March 1, 2008
This has been a long, albeit good read on the history of torture, the techniques, and it's migration. It is written more on the academic side than I first expected, but any audience should be able to grasp it. I find an annoying repetition when he describes the migration of techniques from one country to the other, which gives me an almost dejavue feeling that I've read it before (but not quite as cool).
The connection he makes between penitence and the desire for confession in Christian countries is especially interesting, but alas, he didn't quite follow through.
He also seems to skip over many of the gruesome tortures that POW's were subjected to; he focused more on clean torture techniques that left no visible marks, which were almost exclusively used for extracting confessions or information. Torture purely for the sake of inflicting pain did not seem to play any role in this meticulous account.
There is quite a bit of information about the role of the US in creating clean tortures, that is, torture that leaves no visible certainty that the prisoner was indeed, tortured.
This book could be %25 shorter and still remain a defining work (and probably would have kept me from skimming the last chapters). Growing tired with the read? ...the appendices seem to sum everything up nicely.
I favor an illustrated history of torture rather than a (semi) exhausting work...
The connection he makes between penitence and the desire for confession in Christian countries is especially interesting, but alas, he didn't quite follow through.
He also seems to skip over many of the gruesome tortures that POW's were subjected to; he focused more on clean torture techniques that left no visible marks, which were almost exclusively used for extracting confessions or information. Torture purely for the sake of inflicting pain did not seem to play any role in this meticulous account.
There is quite a bit of information about the role of the US in creating clean tortures, that is, torture that leaves no visible certainty that the prisoner was indeed, tortured.
This book could be %25 shorter and still remain a defining work (and probably would have kept me from skimming the last chapters). Growing tired with the read? ...the appendices seem to sum everything up nicely.
I favor an illustrated history of torture rather than a (semi) exhausting work...
August 11, 2010
A depressing although valuable book that shows how "clean" torture techniques--those that don't leave visible scars or physically incapacitate the victim--have been the hallmark of torturers in the military and police forces in democratic nations.
Rejali documents the use of psychological torture, waterboarding and other clean methods by France, the UK, the United States and other non-totalitarian/non-authoritarian nations. In the western European countries it started with interrogations in colonies--the UK against the Mau Mau in Kenya and the insurgents in Malaysia during the "emergency" and the French in Vietnam and Algeria. Many of the oligarchs of Latin America took their methods from France.
This is almost a reference book of "clean" torture history and usage with chapters the cover how attitudes and procedures evolved in local practice--cattle prods in Argentina, hooding and sleep deprivation in Northern Ireland, drugs in areas controlled by the United States. With chapters on complicit doctors, apologists for torture and evolving refinement of use of electricity, water and fear it is a grim but important book.
The ray of light that shines through is the efficacy of local, national and international monitoring by the press, the judiciary and non-government organizations in staying the hand of torturers. Put simply, they can't afford to be exposed and caught which is why the stealth techniques have become characteristic of torture in open societies.
Rejali documents the use of psychological torture, waterboarding and other clean methods by France, the UK, the United States and other non-totalitarian/non-authoritarian nations. In the western European countries it started with interrogations in colonies--the UK against the Mau Mau in Kenya and the insurgents in Malaysia during the "emergency" and the French in Vietnam and Algeria. Many of the oligarchs of Latin America took their methods from France.
This is almost a reference book of "clean" torture history and usage with chapters the cover how attitudes and procedures evolved in local practice--cattle prods in Argentina, hooding and sleep deprivation in Northern Ireland, drugs in areas controlled by the United States. With chapters on complicit doctors, apologists for torture and evolving refinement of use of electricity, water and fear it is a grim but important book.
The ray of light that shines through is the efficacy of local, national and international monitoring by the press, the judiciary and non-government organizations in staying the hand of torturers. Put simply, they can't afford to be exposed and caught which is why the stealth techniques have become characteristic of torture in open societies.
wish-list
November 10, 2008I put this book on my wish list because, though it's obviously going to be a hard read, it looks like an exceptional study of modern history via the evolution of torture. Intriguingly, the author argues that it's not the dictatorships that continuously push torture forward: it's the democracies. While dictators resort to torture more often, and less discriminately, democracies are consistently responsible for developing the most innovative torture techniques. Having begun his research for this book before the "war on terror" ever began, and having researched it across several continents and languages, the author claims a unique vantage point to unfold the subject. Toward the end of the book, Rejali turns to face the latest modern arguments regarding torture, whether it works, and whether we should be employing it.
Today's issues make this subject a necessary focus for all those who would consider themselves informed citizens. And any modern history education would be incomplete without spending time on the life-and-death question of contemporary torture.
Today's issues make this subject a necessary focus for all those who would consider themselves informed citizens. And any modern history education would be incomplete without spending time on the life-and-death question of contemporary torture.
February 1, 2013
Powerful study of how and why democracies use torture (typically, what Rejali calls "clean" or the type that does not leave obvious long-lasting physical marks) and continuing to challenge the efficacy and morality of torture. Arguing that torture is a craft passed along rather than a science, Rejali traces the development of different clusters of tortures always found together, not because they make sense that way, but because they are the practices passed among particular communities. Recommended for those who work professionally with survivors of torture and their families, those concerned about human rights, and those concerned about effective interrogation techniques by police and military.
May 11, 2010
I read this book for a class I took specifically on Torture last year in graduate school. While this is probably the most gruesome piece of work I have ever read (and at over 700 pages long you cannot avoid it), it is the most comprehensive published work on the topic. In the age of 24 and the utilization of hot button talking points rather than intelligent debate, this work does not preach about the horrific nature of torture -- it illustrates it (and its inability as a practice to produce reliable results) to the point that readers will be hard pressed to walk away and still be able to argue for the use of torture.
March 21, 2008
An important and timely book...all 800+ pages of it. It can become tedious at times, but with a quickly roving eye and an aggressive pursuit of a single line of thought, the reader can find a decisive statement on what are and are not the boundaries of the *real* issue of torture. Illuminating and truly critical.
June 30, 2008
What a fascintating and haunting read! It turns out that most of the effective torture methods used by the Nazis and Soviets to get confessions from political prisoners were first developed by American cops in places like Chicago and New York in the early 20th century.
November 15, 2010
Shows in amazing detail how the forms of torture we identify as uniquely "modern" were created not by the Third Reich and the USSR but by the Western democratic states.
No coverage of isolation detention however,which is a bit of an oversight.
No coverage of isolation detention however,which is a bit of an oversight.
Want to read
July 27, 2008880 pages????
Want to read
August 3, 2008This mother is torturously massive, and I can guarantee I'll never read the whole book, but I would like to have a look at at least some of it, because it's about two of my favorite things!
March 10, 2012
Democracies don't torture less than autocratic governments. They just find better ways to justify it.
February 18, 2016
it should have been published during Abu Ghraib.
The futility of torture is exposed. There's no proof that it works.
The futility of torture is exposed. There's no proof that it works.
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