"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide (2002) is a human rights book exploring the history of genocides in the 20th century. It was written by Professor Samantha Power and was published by Basic Books on February 20, 2002.
The book details the real-life genocides of the twentieth that were witnessed globally by nations that contributed little to their prevention. Power criticizes the lack of inaction made by the US in stopping the attacks against innocent lives. She criticizes western nations for taking a backseat on some of the worst global violations of human rights ever witnessed.
Power touches on the efforts of Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish Polish lawyer, who first coined the word ‘genocide’ in response to the Holocaust. Lemkin made efforts to lobby for aid from the US during the Nazi regime but was met with silence. His life work involved trying to bring the Holocaust its recognition as a serious human rights violation against the Jewish people, and his efforts paid off as he was successful in bringing about the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The book was extremely well received and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Book Award in 2002.
