Public Servant Lifestyle

Stanley Cohen has won the British Academy book prize for his book States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering.

Volumes on multiculturalism, the British working classes, the denial of atrocities, sixteenth century village life, radical enlightenment and the origins of the European economy, formed the six-book shortlist for this year's British Academy Book Prize.

The prize has been won by Professor Stanley Cohen, of the London School of Economics (LSE) - pictured below, with Dame Gillian Beer, chair of the judging panel.

Denial

His work: States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering beat five other shortlisted books to take the £2,500 prize, which aims to celebrate the best of accessible, academically excellent writing within the humanities and social sciences.

States of Denial is the first comprehensive study of both the personal and political ways in which uncomfortable realities are avoided and evaded. It ranges from clinical studies of depression, to media images of suffering, to explanations of terms such as ‘passive bystander’ and ‘compassion fatigue’. The book shows how organized atrocities - the Holocaust and other genocides, torture, and political massacres - are denied by perpetrators and by bystanders, those who stand by and do nothing.

"...a powerful analysis..."

Dame Gillian Beer, chair of the judging panel – which also included author Michèle Roberts, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia - and four others, announced the winner at the British Academy.

Commenting on the judges' decision, Dame Beer said: "This is a powerful analysis of an extraordinarily important topic. How is it possible for witnesses - or participants - in atrocities to deny what has, incontrovertibly, occurred? Can one speak of a culture of denial? In exploring these questions Stanley Cohen has carved out a whole new field of enquiry relating sociology, psychology, philosophy, political theory and personal experience."

States of Denial is the first comprehensive study of both the personal and political ways in which uncomfortable realities are avoided and evaded. It ranges from clinical studies of depression, to media images of suffering, to explanations of 'the passive bystander' and 'compassion fatigue'.

The Atrocity Exhibition

The book illustrates how organised atrocities - the Holocaust and other genocides, torture, and political massacres - are denied by perpetrators and by bystanders, those who stand by and do nothing. The Academy judges called it: "A timely, gripping book, which raises important issues about a deeply uncomfortable subject."

Here's what some of the reviews had to say about this work:

"Few topics can be so painful to contemplate as the modes of avoidance we construct to protect ourselves from what we do not want to know. Stan Cohen guides us through this labyrinth in a compelling study that is cool, thorough and analytic, yet also passionate and riveting, and, remarkably, infused with sympathetic understanding for the forms of denial that are a foundation for 'every personal life and every society', but must be faced honestly and overcome. It is an impressive achievement. To read and ponder it is an unsettling experience, but a very valuable one." - Noam Chomsky.

"This is an exceptionally important book, because it asks difficult and painful questions and answers them with that rare combination of tenacity and modesty which Stan Cohen has made his trademark...this book will become the starting point for all future debate on the subject." - Michael Ignatieff.

"States of Denial is thoughtful, profound, engaging, disturbing, knowledgeable and comprehensive. Cohen reveals, modestly but thoroughly, a mastery of a vast amount of scholarly and journalistic work. It's a remarkable book." - Howard Becker.

Stanley Cohen is Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He received the American Society of Criminology International Division Award for outstanding publication of 2000-2001, the Sellin-Glueck Award of the American Society of Criminology in 1985 and is on the Board of the International Council on Human Rights.

The British Academy, established by Royal Charter in 1902, is the national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It represents and promotes learning and research within the UK and internationally. The Academy Book Prize was set up in 2001 to encourage the writing, publishing and sale of books that are both academically excellent and accessible to the non-specialist reader.

States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering is available now from Polity Press.

PSP Ltd is not responsible for the contents of external websites.

More information available in Books, Incentives & Rewards