The book details the real-life genocides of the twentieth, including the Armenian Genocide (1914-23), The Holocaust (1941-45) and the Rwandan Genocide (1994).
Power discusses the actions of Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish Polish lawyer, in coining the term ‘genocide’ in response to the Jewish Holocaust, and also delves into his life story as a survivor of only 4 of the 50 relatives he had in Nazi Germany, that survived the Holocaust. Lemkin became an important turning point in fighting anti-Semitism against Jews and for propelling foreign policy which eventually led to the creation of the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
In response to the Bosnian genocide (1992–1995), Power's calls out the US Presidents for turning a blind eye against these blatant and extreme global violations of human rights.
Power further criticizes Presidents Reagan and Bush (the first) for their involvement in Iraq, which saw thousands of innocent victims of Saddam Hussein's Shia and Kurdish purges. Power concludes with the statement that it is the moral responsibility of western nations, like the US, to not only act in self-interest but for the interest of all victims of injustice.
