A Lexicon of Terror

Argentina and the Legacies of Torture

Nonfiction, History, Americas, South America, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science
Cover of the book A Lexicon of Terror by Marguerite Feitlowitz, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Marguerite Feitlowitz ISBN: 9780199840373
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: October 7, 1999
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Marguerite Feitlowitz
ISBN: 9780199840373
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: October 7, 1999
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

"We were all out in la charca, and there they were, coming over the ridge, a battalion ready for war, against a schoolhut full of children." Tanks roaring over farmlands, pregnant mothers tortured, their babies stolen and sold on the black market, homes raided in the dead of night, ordinary citizens kidnapped and never seen again--such were the horrors of Argentina's Dirty War. Now, in A Lexicon of Terror, Marguerite Feitlowitz fully exposes the nightmare of sadism, paranoia, and deception the military dictatorship unleashed on the Argentine people, a nightmare that would claim over 30,000 civilians from 1976 to 1983 and whose leaders were recently issued warrants by a Spanish court for the crime of genocide. Feitlowitz explores the perversion of language under state terrorism, both as it's used to conceal and confuse ("The Parliament must be disbanded to rejuvenate democracy") and to domesticate torture and murder. Thus, citizens kidnapped and held in secret concentration camps were "disappeared"; torture was referred to as "intensive therapy"; prisoners thrown alive from airplanes over the ocean were called "fish food." Based on six years of research and moving interviews with peasants, intellectuals, activists, and bystanders, A Lexicon of Terror examines the full impact of this catastrophic period from its inception to the present, in which former torturers, having been pardoned and released from prison, live side by side with those they tortured. Passionately written and impossible to put down, Feitlowitz shows us both the horror of the war and the heroism of those who resisted and survived--their courage, their endurance, their eloquent refusal to be dehumanized in the face of torments even Dante could not have imagined.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"We were all out in la charca, and there they were, coming over the ridge, a battalion ready for war, against a schoolhut full of children." Tanks roaring over farmlands, pregnant mothers tortured, their babies stolen and sold on the black market, homes raided in the dead of night, ordinary citizens kidnapped and never seen again--such were the horrors of Argentina's Dirty War. Now, in A Lexicon of Terror, Marguerite Feitlowitz fully exposes the nightmare of sadism, paranoia, and deception the military dictatorship unleashed on the Argentine people, a nightmare that would claim over 30,000 civilians from 1976 to 1983 and whose leaders were recently issued warrants by a Spanish court for the crime of genocide. Feitlowitz explores the perversion of language under state terrorism, both as it's used to conceal and confuse ("The Parliament must be disbanded to rejuvenate democracy") and to domesticate torture and murder. Thus, citizens kidnapped and held in secret concentration camps were "disappeared"; torture was referred to as "intensive therapy"; prisoners thrown alive from airplanes over the ocean were called "fish food." Based on six years of research and moving interviews with peasants, intellectuals, activists, and bystanders, A Lexicon of Terror examines the full impact of this catastrophic period from its inception to the present, in which former torturers, having been pardoned and released from prison, live side by side with those they tortured. Passionately written and impossible to put down, Feitlowitz shows us both the horror of the war and the heroism of those who resisted and survived--their courage, their endurance, their eloquent refusal to be dehumanized in the face of torments even Dante could not have imagined.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Slaveholding Republic by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book The Day Wall Street Exploded : A Story Of America In Its First Age Of Terror by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Opening a Mountain by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Honored by the Glory of Islam by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book The National Institutes of Health by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book The Land Is Our History by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book From Evidence to Outcomes in Child Welfare by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book God Is Watching You by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Losing The News : The Future Of The News That Feeds Democracy by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Tethered Fates by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Second Skin by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book eGods by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Just Responsibility by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Cover of the book Feminist Theories: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide by Marguerite Feitlowitz
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy