What do you think?
Rate this book
Very Short Introductions #601
Concentration Camps: A Very Short Introduction
Concentration camps are a relatively new invention, a recurring feature of twentieth century warfare, and one that is important to the modern global consciousness and identity. Although the most famous concentration camps are those under the Nazis, the use of concentration camps originated several decades before the Third Reich, in the Philippines and in the Boer War, and they have been used again in numerous locations, not least during the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Over the course of the twentieth century they have become defining symbols of humankind's lowest point and basest acts.
In this Very Short Introduction, Dan Stone gives a global history of concentration camps, and shows that it is not only "mad dictators" who have set up camps, but instead all varieties of states, including liberal democracies, that have made use of them. Setting concentration camps against the longer history of incarceration, he explains how the ability of the modern state to control populations led to the creation of this extreme institution. Looking at their emergence and spread around the world, Stone argues that concentration camps serve the purpose, from the point of view of the state in crisis, of removing a section of the population that is perceived to be threatening, traitorous, or diseased. Drawing on contemporary accounts of camps, as well as the philosophical literature surrounding them, Stone considers the story camps tell us about the nature of the modern world as well as about specific regimes.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
In this Very Short Introduction, Dan Stone gives a global history of concentration camps, and shows that it is not only "mad dictators" who have set up camps, but instead all varieties of states, including liberal democracies, that have made use of them. Setting concentration camps against the longer history of incarceration, he explains how the ability of the modern state to control populations led to the creation of this extreme institution. Looking at their emergence and spread around the world, Stone argues that concentration camps serve the purpose, from the point of view of the state in crisis, of removing a section of the population that is perceived to be threatening, traitorous, or diseased. Drawing on contemporary accounts of camps, as well as the philosophical literature surrounding them, Stone considers the story camps tell us about the nature of the modern world as well as about specific regimes.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
160 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2019
10 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
Dan Stone
67 books62 followersDan Stone was born in Lincoln and brought up in Birmingham. He studied at the University of Oxford and since 1999 has taught at Royal Holloway, University of London. Dan is a historian of modern Europe with particular interests in the Holocaust, comparative genocide, fascism, race theory, and the history of anthropology.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 19, 2021
This little booklet offers an informative and obviously harrowing outline of the evolution of concentration camps. From one of the first camp systems in German South West Africa to the extensive network of labour and extermination camps throughout Nazi Germany, this compact history supplies the reader with crucial knowledge on one of the darkest creations of human existence. Gruesome, yet absolutely necessary information.
July 16, 2020
Did a good job of explaining a great deal quickly, which is realistically what was asked of this. Was probably too soft on the gulag system, specifically Kolyma, Vorkuta, and Magadan, but the perspective was still refreshing..
January 31, 2025
Quick summary of some concentration camps.
Not all concentration camps were death/extermination camps like Auschwitz. Slave labor concentration camps existed in Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. Concentration camps existed in the U.S. with the Japanese. The origins of concentration camps were likely in South Africa, but they also had other historical predecessors before it morphed into what it ultimately became.
There are discussions about whether Gaza, Guantanamo Bay, and so on are modern concentration camps. Author comes down on both not being so at the time of writing, given that NGO’s and legal rights still apply in Gaza (again, at time of writing), but the author does note that there are significant human rights abuses and went essentially apt comparisons are made to concentration camps and similarities are drawn, it should draw the attention of humanitarians (and of course, we can still take seriously human rights abuses in areas that are not technically concentration camps). And again, this was written in 2019, 4 years before what would ultimately amount to genocide in Gaza of Palestinians.
It was a sad, but important (yet short) book. The author is informative. The topic of concentration camps will always be sad, since it’s shows human nature at its worst: cruel, vindictive, abusive, power-seeking, barbaric, and violent.
Not all concentration camps were death/extermination camps like Auschwitz. Slave labor concentration camps existed in Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. Concentration camps existed in the U.S. with the Japanese. The origins of concentration camps were likely in South Africa, but they also had other historical predecessors before it morphed into what it ultimately became.
There are discussions about whether Gaza, Guantanamo Bay, and so on are modern concentration camps. Author comes down on both not being so at the time of writing, given that NGO’s and legal rights still apply in Gaza (again, at time of writing), but the author does note that there are significant human rights abuses and went essentially apt comparisons are made to concentration camps and similarities are drawn, it should draw the attention of humanitarians (and of course, we can still take seriously human rights abuses in areas that are not technically concentration camps). And again, this was written in 2019, 4 years before what would ultimately amount to genocide in Gaza of Palestinians.
It was a sad, but important (yet short) book. The author is informative. The topic of concentration camps will always be sad, since it’s shows human nature at its worst: cruel, vindictive, abusive, power-seeking, barbaric, and violent.
May 3, 2023
"Concentration Camps, A Very Short Introduction" by Professor Dan Stone of the University of London; (2019: 126 pages).
This brief read is anything but a quick one. A series of profound topics are identified / discussed and many paths for continued research presented. Reviewing the table of contents is useful, I think, to give the prospective reader an idea of the material covered;
1. What is a concentration camp?
2. Origins
3. The Third Reich's world of camps
4. The Gulag
5. The wide world of camps
6. "An Auschwitz every three months"; society as a camp?
As I read Stone's book, I purchased "The First Guidebook to Prisons and Concentration Camps in the Soviet Union" (by Avraham Shifman); also "Totalitarianism" (by Hannah Arendt) to follow up on specific matters of interest. Additionally, I found myself deeply researching each chapter in the moment, learning about the utility of camps deployed by many governments, including our own; and, of course, the differentiation between camps.
This is at least the second read for me by Dr. Stone, the first being "The Sonderkommando Photographs"; below is a link to Dr. Stone's profile at Royal Holloway.
(https://royalholloway.ac.uk/.../our-s.......)
This brief read is anything but a quick one. A series of profound topics are identified / discussed and many paths for continued research presented. Reviewing the table of contents is useful, I think, to give the prospective reader an idea of the material covered;
1. What is a concentration camp?
2. Origins
3. The Third Reich's world of camps
4. The Gulag
5. The wide world of camps
6. "An Auschwitz every three months"; society as a camp?
As I read Stone's book, I purchased "The First Guidebook to Prisons and Concentration Camps in the Soviet Union" (by Avraham Shifman); also "Totalitarianism" (by Hannah Arendt) to follow up on specific matters of interest. Additionally, I found myself deeply researching each chapter in the moment, learning about the utility of camps deployed by many governments, including our own; and, of course, the differentiation between camps.
This is at least the second read for me by Dr. Stone, the first being "The Sonderkommando Photographs"; below is a link to Dr. Stone's profile at Royal Holloway.
(https://royalholloway.ac.uk/.../our-s.......)
January 17, 2024
If you are wondering whether Gaza is a concentration camp or not, I recommend this book. The ubiquity (for lack of a better word) of concentration camps is an eye-opener. Which means we get to decide whether we just accept that or prefer a world without.
March 29, 2021
A solid overview of the history of concentration camps and honestly not the way anyone should find out chicken run is about concentration camps.
June 27, 2024
Good introduction to the concentration camps people know about from WWII, as well as their historical background in English and German colonies. Takes a broad view that discusses both genocidal concentration camps as well as the earlier and co-existing type of concentration camp during WWII. Toward the end of the book it includes a modern academic debate on whether regular prisons or alternative military detainment should be included in the definition, this is clearly the weakest part of the book, but useful for a 'state of academia' check which VSI often provides, and goes partially into the political battles over how this works in propaganda.
For a deeper discussion on genocidal camps during WWII look to Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.
For a deeper discussion on genocidal camps during WWII look to Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.
March 18, 2025
Great book! It's the first "Very Short Introductions" that I read, and I was worried that it would be too much a summary, or too bland. I'm agreeably surprised by the overall quality of it!
The book retraces most of the history of the concentration camps, and along the famous nazi ones, present succinctly many less well known, like the France concentration camps where they put the Spanish War refugees that fought against Franco fascism before WWII.
The last chapter is also very interesting, putting things in perspective with the current state of the world, and asking many intelligent and thought inducing questions without giving answers; for example about the Europe complacency regarding the problematic of depriving people of their liberty of movement without trial, visible in its treatment of refugees from war torn countries, or the open air prison, genocidal ground, of Gaza.
So the book concludes in letting the reader with a lot to ponder and reflect on!
The book retraces most of the history of the concentration camps, and along the famous nazi ones, present succinctly many less well known, like the France concentration camps where they put the Spanish War refugees that fought against Franco fascism before WWII.
The last chapter is also very interesting, putting things in perspective with the current state of the world, and asking many intelligent and thought inducing questions without giving answers; for example about the Europe complacency regarding the problematic of depriving people of their liberty of movement without trial, visible in its treatment of refugees from war torn countries, or the open air prison, genocidal ground, of Gaza.
So the book concludes in letting the reader with a lot to ponder and reflect on!
October 18, 2024
Decent introduction to the subject, as a primer this was ok; for some more in depth literature be sure to check out the works by Timothy Snyder; Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin; in addition some excellent works: KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps and Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps.
December 14, 2023
Good: Do not fall into traps at end different end of scale: Neither say that every other internment/POW/Labor camp in history was another Auschwitz. Nor say that Auschwitz and Holocaust was something unexplainable/out of history. It nicely compare different camps across 20th century.
Bad: Last chapter on current situation is BS (I recomend stopping reading after Gulags).
Bad: Last chapter on current situation is BS (I recomend stopping reading after Gulags).
July 9, 2025
Gives a good overview of CCs, going beyond the popular conception of the Holocaust to argue that CCs are less a universally uniform barbed-wire type of phenomenon but possibly a fundamental aspect of humanity at its most vulnerable/gruesome. Good starting point with useful references and open-ended questions
September 13, 2025
An excellent overview of a very challenging subject. Stone provides good overage of the early concentration camps, the Nazis, the Gulag, and the post-WWII camps. His study is comparative in the best sense, using similarities and differences to lead to insights about the nature of camps and the broad range that regimes have used to further their ends.
June 26, 2020
Having no real knowledge of concentration camps, this book did cover some basic details of concentration camps.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews