Skip to main content
School of Law

Dr Ben Madley - Book launch and Screening of 'The Canary Effect'

6 March 2017

Time: 12:00 - 4:00pm
Venue: Room 313, Third Floor, Law Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road E1 4NS United Kingdom

This event is hosted by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI). Dr Ben Madley, Associate Professor, History Department Interim Chair, American Indian Studies Program University of California, will launch his new book 'An American Genocide: The United State and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873' (Yale). This will be followed by a screening of the 'Canary Effect'.

About the book

Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. Madley’s deeply researched new book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (Yale University Press; publication date May 24, 2016; $38.00), is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book.

Directions

For directions to the venue, please refer to the map.

How to book

This event is free but prior booking is required. Register online via Eventbrite.

Contact

For more information on this event, please email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk.


Photography, video and audio recording

School of Law events may be photographed or video and audio recorded. These materials will be used for internal and external promotional purposes only by Queen Mary University of London. If you object to appearing in the photographs, please let our photographer know on the day. Alternatively you can email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk in advance of the event that you are attending.

Back to top