From the Armenian genocide to Gaza, the trajectory of the concept through history, law, and global politics. A distinctive contribution to the international conversation on justice, violence, and historical memory.

Genocide is one of the most morally charged and politically manipulated words of our time. This book provides a bold and timely anatomy of the concept, not by offering a fixed definition or issuing moral verdicts, but by tracing the shifting meaning and uses of the term genocide itself.
From its invention by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, prompted by the extermination of the Armenians and the failure of existing international law, to its instrumentalization in Cold War diplomacy, Holocaust memory culture, and today’s global conflicts, Fonzi offers a critical genealogy of the term. The book’s historical core is built around three foundational events of the twentieth century: the Armenian genocide (1915) - widely regarded as the first modern genocide - the expulsion of the Greeks from Asia Minor (1914–1923), and the Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine (1932–1933). All three occurred before the word “genocide” existed, revealing that atrocity is never recognized through facts alone, but through evolving legal, political, and cultural frameworks. 
Taking a decolonial perspective, Fonzi questions the Western-centric construction of genocide narratives, demonstrating how international institutions have historically privileged some forms of suffering while marginalizing or excluding others: a structural imbalance that continues to shape global discourse.